Cedars of Lebanon
by No Line on the Horizon
Summary: It not easy to take the spirit of the strong-willed, especially with her determination. But if her worst nightmare happened to occur, how cracked would it leave her? Would another damaged soul be able to heal the wounds? Shadamy
1. Falling From a Branch

Originally I submitted this story a long time ago, and after one chapter forgot about it. It was kind of hard for me to write using the plot I had created at the time, and then after a long slump I decided to just simply abandon the story.

However… recently I went back and looked at it for a little while, and I have a sudden interest in rebooting it again. So now along with the story on Tron: Legacy that I'm currently writing, we'll have this story as well.

Keep in mind that there might be random updating all based on my college schedule. I've been settling in which is why I haven't done too much in the last few weeks.

Anyway to warn you again, this will be a very dark themed story emotionally so if that isn't your cup of tea I suggest looking at another story.

Anyway, this is a reboot, and I hope you guys like it!

Cedars of Lebanon

I

...

Run… keep going… don't turn back…

…

Sunshine that once radiated brightly over the horizon began to fade, taking the light and slowly replacing it with darkness. It was a cool and crisp summer's night, however need be specific the date was August 10th; you could find this on one of the many televisions within the shops that broadcasted the local 10 o clock news. Many of them just happened to close at around 12, leaving a significant amount of stores empty and dark.

The city's sidewalks were dampened by the morning rain, and the day had remained overcast, not letting the ground fully dry out. A few people could be seen lurking on the streets, the traffic and bustling of rush hour long gone. Many of Station Square's inhabitants were at or heading to the comfort of their homes and apartments, for few stayed out this late at night. Then again, it was a Thursday night, and the majority of them needed a good nights rest for work tomorrow.

Dimly lit alleyways provided gangs places to converse and meet others, talking about news and such. The majority of them participated in an underground drug trade, with cocaine and vicodin being the most sought after. As a result, Station Square had a good deal of crime that was hidden from most of the public view, since the crime was between gangs. The police force in turn made their plentiful wages well earned, as the nightshift kept crime towards civilians to a minimum

However, this didn't bother a teenage pink hedgehog, who at this present moment was scurrying through various alleys, using them as shortcuts to a nearby train station. There was a final train for the night at 12:30, and with her employ of shortcuts, she could effortlessly make it with minutes to spare.

"Gotta, wheeze, hurry."

Her sights were clearly marked on beating the train, only her legs thought completely otherwise. To her they felt like trying to run while having rubber for legs, they would be weak and unbalanced, pretty much a liability in her case. But she kept pace, after all Amy did have a cause for rushing.

(Earlier in the day)

A breeze blew some stray leaves around a tree trunk, but did nothing to break the relaxation of a pink hedgehog. The 16 year old had on a pair of cerulean shorts, and a white top to be paired along with a rather large cerulean hat. She was just enjoying the nice summer day on her own in one of the local parks, although she wouldn't object to the twinge of loneliness she felt at the time.

Nonetheless, today was as good as summer day as any in her mind. Amy finally realized why Sonic enjoyed his carefree lifestyle so much; it was nice just to relax and have your mind free from worries once in a while. For Amy though, having an empty mind was something she wasn't exactly accustomed to. The girl was used to worrying about the multitude of things, mainly her friends. Surprisingly though not always Sonic, as she finally had matured enough to accept that he wasn't right for her.

Despite this however, Sonic and Amy put their differences aside and became good friends. In fact, over the last three years the pair has turned into the brother and sister type, with each of them watching over the other all the time, though not obsessively like the Amy of the past. The two would hang out more and talk more with one another, both things that didn't happen in the past. Then again, Sonic didn't have any interest in talking with the obsessive 13 year old Amy.

She did wish that he was back now, as he had gone to find a chaos emerald that was nearby. Tails had detected it using a special tracker he created. The new one had a longer battery life and had twice the accuracy of the old one, or so he told her. Tails had mentioned some other things about it, but the majority of what he had said was too technical for Amy to grasp, and only caused her to get a headache in the process. She laughed to herself anytime she thought about it.

Amy was about to get up to head back to her house, when she heard some rustling in the branches of the tree above her.

She turned her attention towards the large oak, and tried to see if there was anybody around.

"Hello? Is there anybody there?"

As if on cue, an ebony hedgehog fell out of the tree, and landed backside first onto the ground with a thud. He got angry and glared up at the tree, as if it magically shoved him off itself.

He brushed off the grass and leaves on his legs and turned around to see Amy standing with a questionable expression on her face.

"Rose?"

"Shadow?"

Both paused for a few seconds.

"What are you doing here?" They asked simultaneously.

"Well I was just relaxing by the trunk. It was a nice day so I thought I would come out here," Amy responded. "I'm curious on why you were even in a tree."

"Well if you must know, I like this tree because there is a good spot where I can relax without people finding me," Shadow said, crossing his arms.

"Can I see?"

Shadow lead her over and pointed up to a spot where the branches seemed to be perfectly formed to act as a small relaxation spot.

"Oh cool! Where did you find that?" She asked.

"In the tree of course," Shadow replied nonchalantly.

Amy shot him a little glare, causing Shadow to smirk a little bit. He had to admit, he didn't care for the old Amy and her Sonic obsessive behavior in the slightest. In fact, he downright found it nearly impossible to be around her, as it would just make his brain, and ears, hurt. Now though she had finally decided to mature, and now she was actually tolerable, and sometimes even he would admit to enjoying her company once in a blue moon.

"So anyway, what brings you here Rose? Usually I see you among your friends, never on your own."

Amy felt a bit of sadness upon her realization of being alone on such a nice day, "Yeah they're all busy so I just decided to go on my own."

Then an idea popped into her head. Would Shadow do something with her? She'd always tried to spend some time with him, maybe try to get to know him better. Amy didn't even know that much about Shadow to begin with.

"Hey Shadow, why don't the two of us do something together? It's only around noon."

This got Shadow's attention. Most of the activities any female he knew did had zero combined interest to him. Although getting out of this predicament would be a little difficult.

"I was just going to relax alone today," he said.

Amy shot him a little pout face. "Awe come on Shadow, don't be such a loner. Spending the day with me would cheer me up, I've been lonely today. Please?"

Shadow could only mentally sigh. If he said no now, Amy would do one of three things. She would either get very sad and mopey, get upset and angry, or bring out her hammer. And for Shadow's well-being, hedgehog had no interest in being mauled with a large hammer.

"Okay sure. What would you like to do?"

And so their day together began.

…

Shadow originally just said yes in order to avoid an angry or upset Amy, but in retrospect the ebony hedgehog would be lying if he said he hated all the stuff he and Amy did. In fact, he even enjoyed most of it to be exact.

The first thing they went to do was see a movie, with Shadow dreading the worst as Amy dragged them up to the ticket counter.

"Hello and how may I help you?" the female at the booth asked.

"Hi, uh can we get two tickets to Hobo with a Shotgun please?" Shadow's head cocked to the side in sheer surprise at hearing the movie Amy decided to take him to. She gave the 10 dollars for the tickets and bid the lady a nice day before walking with Shadow towards the snack counter. The pair each got a small popcorn and a coke, and went to the respective theater their movie was playing at.

The movie itself was incredibly outrageous, and in turn this got both Amy and even Shadow laughing at most of the scenes in the movie. He actually was planning to see this eventually, as the effects in the preview made it look like one of those so ridiculous it's hilarious type movies. Amy turned while Shadow was laughing at one of the scenes and smiled to herself, happy she was able to give Shadow a good time for once in his life.

After the movie, she decided to take him to lunch, only to have a problem with doing so. She had no idea what type of food he liked. So she decided to play it smart, and take him to a local bistro place she liked. It was Italian and called Fratellis; and it was one of her favorite little hidden places in Station Square.

Once they were seated and got their menus, Shadow decided to ask about the movie as he was still curious and surprised by the random choice.

"Rose can I ask you something?"

She looked up from the menu, "Sure thing!"

"Why exactly did you pick that movie? It seems like something completely opposite for you doesn't it?" he asked, still sporting a question mark type expression. "Was it cause I'd like it?"

Amy shook her head and smirked a bit in his direction, "Shadow the hedgehog, you assume I'm the type that only watches chick flicks? Sometimes I like a bit of violence… and gore." Shadow blinked, and then chuckled.

"Maybe I did have the wrong impression of you. I expected a girly girl type like you used to be, but you've changed a lot you know. To think that I thought you were the most annoying person on earth at one point."

Shadow tried to oversee that he said that, but got a glare and a slap from Amy, followed by a thank you.

"The slap was for the second part of that, the thank you for the first," she said.

So the pair continued talking until the waiter came to take their orders. Amy got a cup of Italian wedding soup and a small side salad, while Shadow decided on a turkey club with handmade potato chips. Once the food came the two ate and talked about Sonic and the rest of the game, with Shadow trying as much as possible to not talk about his supposed rival. His negativity towards Sonic made Amy nearly burst out laughing at some points on account of how Shadow hadn't changed at all in some ways.

After lunch they went back to the pair and sat together under the tree, both satisfied with their meals. Especially Shadow, he forgot the last time he got a sandwich that good, or even when he enjoyed a meal that much.

Both of them sat in silence for awhile, until it was Amy who was the first to speak up.

"You know, what you said about me changing, I think you've changed too you know"

Shadow looked over at Amy when she said that, curious onto what she thought was different about him. "Do tell."

"Well you're not the moody and lonely guy I used to know for one. And you even seem nicer," She remarked, and then paused a bit for a second, "Is it me?"

He didn't really know how to respond to this. What does she mean is it me?

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know, but most of the time you seem to be in a bad mood when around anybody else. Now the one day it's me alone you opened up. I just thought it was a coincidence that's all."

The ebony hedgehog flashed a rare smile, "Well perhaps it is."

A gust of wind blew forcefully across the entire park, making the trees sway and a couple of leaves fell on top of Shadows head. He shook them off, except for one that was stuck. Amy realized this, and reached over to try and help him get it out.

"Hang on, it got caught in one of your quills."

Right when she got it out, she lost her balance and ended up falling into Shadow's lap. He responded by jumping up in surprise, while a faint blush appeared on his face. Amy's face showed the same response as he did too.

"Sorry about that… heh," She said.

Shadow just shrugged it off.

The sun was beginning to set, and the pair watched as the bountiful sun dived behind a couple of Station Square's skyscrapers. Amy commented on how she loved when the sky turned into an array of purples and oranges, to which Shadow replied on how remarkable it was. She looked at her phone to realize that it was nearly 7:00.

"I got to run Shadow, the pharmacy I have to pick up my allergy medication at closes around 8:00, and it takes me a good half an hour to get over there, so I want to leave some time in between," She informed. Amy hated to just leave him, abruptly, but was happy when he seemed understanding.

"Okay, oh and Rose?"

She was getting up as he said that, "Yeah?"

"Let's do this again sometime."

And with that he got up and walked off. Amy just watched him go, her heart suddenly feeling a bit empty as he got farther and farther away.

And this pretty much summed up why the hedgehog was out so late. The 16 year old was almost to the pharmacy, and now had to rush to get there considering that her watch was off by nearly 25 minutes.

Her mind remembered an alleyway preceding the entrance to an Italian restaurant, and if such a way could save her some time, so be it. She turned, now running at a good clip down the dimly lit alley, looking forward constantly to assure that she wouldn't trip. Half broken beer and wine bottles littered the pavement, splinters of fabric too. Burned down cigarette bottoms appeared squished into the grooves of the ground, their boxes crushed and compressed.

Out of the blue however, a pack of small mice scurried in front of the hedgehog, causing her to completely freak out, as she had a fear of the creatures. A squeal parted from her lips, and in an attempt to avoid stepping on the tiny things she sidestepped herself, only to achieve the pain of falling chest first onto stiff ground. She dropped her phone on the pavement, and it bounced a few times before skidding to a halt a couple of feet away.

"Dammit! Why the hell does this crap always happened to me?" She muttered bitterly under her own breath, trying to find her cellular device. It didn't really help that the color of it was black, and it wasn't like there was much light in order to find it. She finally saw it on top of a flattened cardboard box, and she noticed that there were a couple of scratches on the outside of the case. She assumed it to be just as easy fix.

Now continuing her trek to the downtown station, Amy noticed another familiar path through an alley, except this time there was a lack of light within it. She already knew that use of this would threatened her safety and put her in jeopardy. But the pharmacy she used sometimes did close early if they didn't get any customers. Well, on the bright side at least it wasn't totally dark, and she was able to see enough to avoid obstacles.

She walked at a rather quick clip this time, avoiding the urge to sprint down the alleyway to save time, and because of the fact that Amy just so happened to be a tiny bit petrified of darkness. Even though she was 16, falling asleep was absolutely impossible without some sort of illumination within her room. Cream sometimes made little jokes about her nightlight in her room, which even made her laugh sometimes.

And now here she was, striding down a passageway between two aged brick apartment buildings, their shadows in the moonlight coexisting with one another, forming complete and utter obscurity before her. She wanted to prove to her own self that she wasn't that frightened little girl anymore, and proceeded into the dark without a whimper or an ounce of regret.

It only took about 10 seconds to entirely change this to the opposite factors.

While her mind was screaming at her to stop and turn back around, it seemed as if her legs had a mind of their own, and they continued to truck along, unresponsive to whatever was being debated in Amy's mind.

_Halt! Dammit why won't you go back! Don't you know who could be lurking around you, and whoever it is, you can barely see them._

She shook off the thoughts of her inner self.

_Why am I being so stubborn anyway, after all this path isn't too long, I mean look at that. I can see some light already in front of me, just a little bit longer._

With anxiety building up inside her mind, her legs told her to move quicker, to which she obeyed. Soon Amy was running in large lengthy strides, her phone in her hand this time to safe the case from more abuse from the pavement.

_Almost… there…_

So it seemed until her left foot slammed into another foot beyond hers. She was whisked through the air, nearly a full 4 feet ahead of her, the phone flying into a wall, while her head crashed into the unforgiving pavement beneath her.

That same person who had tripped the innocent girl slowly sauntered over the body of Amy Rose, and in mere seconds had her pinned down against the pavement, both her knees and elbows severely scraped, though there wasn't a huge presence of blood. He was atop her back, a hand grasping her mouth, making sure that he was extra cautious, if she were to scream, he knew he was done.

And she would be too.

…

Thanks for reading, please drop a review!


	2. No Pt 1

Well, only two reviewers? That's a-okay, thanks to both Project Shadow and Tameria.

I decided to write the next scene in multiple parts, most likely either 2 or 3. They will be much shorter than the rest of the chapters I'll be writing, but I think the mood is set better that way. Expect quicker updating then, and also please keep reviewing.

Cedars of Lebanon

II

She was shivering.

Being August and in the middle of summer, Station Square wasn't exactly cold. In fact, temperatures were pretty steady in the middle sixties at night. This night also proved to be quite on the humid side as well.

But Amy Rose was not cold… even know she thought she was.

She was shivering out of pure fear, as she felt a hand clasp forcefully around her mouth, muffling out all the noise she attempted to make. Oh how so bad she wanted to scream, to somehow get the attention of any person who happened to be near.

But with the night as dark as it was, being able to see anybody was up to chance.

_I did not notice the passersby, and they did not notice me._

She gasped in fright as a warm moist breath spread along the back of her neck, sending goose bumps across her entire body. Rough callused hands ran up and down the length of her arms, so painfully slow almost to where it seemed he was savoring every touch and feeling he was getting.

She then felt those same coarse hands move lower and still so unbelievably slow, until they rested symmetrically at her hips. It's as if he was doing every single movement in a measured and controlled manner, experienced even.

It was this point where she tried to fight back.

The pink hedgehog gave a swift kick backwards, aiming for where the place where the sun didn't shine. To her pleasure she got a direct hit, and heard the unexpected gasp from the person. She felt his arms lose a bit of their forceful grip, and knew this was her best chance if any to escape.

She broke away, just for a split second, and it seemed optimistic that she would get out of the ordeal without any harm. That being until the next split second, where her body met a brick wall.

The guy had reflexes that resembled a tiger, swift and incredibly quick, and was able to find her arm the second she had escaped. He took her and violently slammed her backwards into the hard and unforgiving brick, and immediately covered her mouth following his actions.

Amy heard a loud crack accompanying her body being driven into the wall, along with a piercing pain in her left elbow. She thought nothing of it, until the pain tripled in magnitude, and the feeling suddenly became all too real.

Her elbow was definitely broken, and he knew for sure it was. The sound of the crack, he's been a witness firsthand to the same sort of sound, and as he remembered a broken elbow was the result; it just so happened he was the cause.

She felt the small droplets forming along the corners of her emerald eyes, but tried to blink them away as she focused on getting out of this nightmare. Couldn't she just wake up?

"Frisky and beautiful, my oh my…"

The first words to exit his mouth. And on top of that, they were said in a seductive almost teasing manner, as if he had all the confidence in the world in his actions.

Amy could do nothing but be disgusted at the vile being and every word that he said. She would have responded almost instantaneously, but for her own well-being kept her mouth zipped closed. He could have a weapon on him for all she knows, and she was just interested in survival.

His entire body was keeping her pinned against the wall, keeping Amy completely immobile and therefore unable to put up any sort of fight. He noticed a tear that fell onto the hand that held in her cries, and determined that the pain was too much for her to bear. Reaching into his side pocket with his right hand, he pulled out a small syringe full of a special painkiller that would help to numb the pain, most of anyway.

Amy's vision had become one huge blur of a landscape, thanks in part to the tears now streaming down her face. She had no way of wiping them away, as while one arm was completely useless, the other was immobile just like the rest of her.

"A small little prick, and the pain is all gone…"

Amy heard the words leave his mouth, and it sounded as if he were singing to her. She felt disgusted even more at this, and felt increasingly angry as this guy continued to hum almost as if he was in a good mood.

Then she felt a small pierce in the back of her neck.

_She will suffer the needle chill… She's running to stand still._

Two emerald eyes went wide with pure fear.

"Feeling better baby?"

She was able to turn around and spit directly between his eyes…

… Identical emerald eyes.

"No…" The word slipped out of her lips in almost a hoarse, unbelievable whisper.

The two hedgehogs exchanged a glance.

"Hello Amy."


	3. No Pt 2

Initially this was supposed to be submitted like 2 days after the last chapter, but apparently I got assigned plenty of work to keep me from doing any writing. So sorry about that =)

Anyway, here is the second part to the second chapter (confusing much?) Chapters will be longer after this one.

Please R and R!

Cedars of Lebanon

II (Part II)

Have you ever jolted from your bed because of a dreadful nightmare? One that you thought was so real, it continued even after you had awakened?

Imagine a loved one, somebody whom you are close with emotionally, like perhaps a life companion or a family member. Now imagine this person doing an unspeakable crime, something so despicable where even you would question your relation to them; maybe a bank robbery, physical assault, first degree murder… serial rape.

With this in your mind, imagine you were the victim. Imagine if this person came up to you, a sickeningly sly smile on their face, knowing full and well that they had total control over your every movement, the ability to make any single breath you take your last.

Now imagine what Amy Rose must have going through her mind.

Here she was, frozen in pure fear knowing full and well that she wasn't capable of fighting off this hedgehog, as he was much too powerful. When his hands went to grab at her arm earlier, she was caught off guard on just how agile and quick he was, in fact it he seemed to be too quick. This kind of speed faintly reminded her of somebody she knew.

But once she saw those identical emerald eyes, the same ones she always tried to catch when she was young, the ones who saved her countless time, the ones who now served as a brotherly figure to her… she couldn't believe it was the same ones in front of her.

She wouldn't believe it.

"No… he wouldn't…"

The supposed hedgehog in front of her just smiled and shook his head a bit as he watched the pink hedgehog display so many different emotions at once, even she seemed hopelessly lost within her own mind.

"Ames..."

Something stirred within Amy Rose with the mention of this nickname. The fear, the shock, the disbelief, they all took a backseat for a moment in time. Instead, pure hatred and fury began to bubble up from her core.

Her vision became clearer again, and the sobs that she experienced in between her tears came to a halt.

But… she made a foolish mistake.

"Fuck you…," she snarled, and spat right into the eyes of the hedgehog before her.

He flinched, if only for a second.

The mysterious hedgehog pushed her twice as hard into the unforgiving brick of the apartment building, so forceful in fact that it began to make lacerations in her back, and fragments of the bricks began to fall down to the dark alleyway below them. He took out a knife, brand new as a matter of fact, and slashed the front of Amy's shirt, turning it into two sections that slipped down her sides until it rested at her shoes.

He continued cupping her mouth while doing this, knowing full and well that the painkiller doubled as a sedative. Knowing her petite size however, he made sure it only made her immobile, as he didn't want to completely send her out of consciousness.

Any fury left in Amy's body was driven away by the sudden and swift swipe of that knife an inch from her own eyes. To make matters worse, the moonlight reflected off the knife for such a short amount of time.

It was long enough to reveal that the fur of the hedgehog before her was indeed cobalt, and further resembled Sonic's natural hue.

As much as Amy tried to go against the thought of it, she started to truly believe that it was indeed Sonic before her. Everything… his eyes, fur, shoes, even his everyday mannerisms were there. It was like some screwed up puzzle given to her to solve in the middle of her own internal hell. And she solved it.

Shock to the system finally set in for her.

She was going to die.

She was going to die.

… right?

The cobalt hedgehog before her watched as her eyes morphed into this blank stare directly into the other side of the alleyway. He noticed that her breathing and heart rate suddenly spiked, and he himself began to show a sense of doubt in administering that drug from earlier. Already knowing the effects of the drug beforehand, he did not remember spiking heart rates being one of the side effects of using it. In fact, it should be the complete opposite.

Shrugging it off, he kindled the knife in his hands and with the utmost precision, and sliced through the cerulean colored material of her shorts, proceeding to rip them off once he was through. The female before him now stood in her undergarments, shivering ever so slightly and he knew exactly that it didn't have anything to do with the weather.

Gently, he let her off the unforgiving wall, and Amy's legs gave way within an instant, sending her crashing down into the ground in a heap. She was unable to control her body any longer, as the drug's effects were finally working and just as the cobalt hedgehog had predicted. He looked down upon Amy's limp body, her eyes still showing alertness despite the rest of her disagreeing otherwise.

"You know Amy I always did want to do this, but I just wanted to wait till you were older," He said with a smile, an actual sincere smile as if he completely was ignorant of the crime he was about to commit.

Amy's mind was still functioning at this point as the cobalt hedgehog moved her body into a more comfortable position with her back leaning up against the brick wall. She could only watch in horror as she took her broken elbow into his hands with a look of concern on his face.

He continued to survey Amy's body, noticing that the space where he had slashed her shirt off now showed a long thin incision barely the depth of a simple paper cut. Worry didn't set in for such a cut, he knew it was too thin to do any harm to the girl, but it did impress him as he had no idea the knife was that sharp.

Prudently, he turned Amy over onto her stomach, to reveal the immense amount of damage that Amy's back had gotten. The majority of the top of her back was covered in a mixture of her own blood and dust from the crumbling of the bricks, and littering the area was a multitude of small cuts and incisions. Her lower back was the same to an extent, however, he showed a bit of remorse for what he had caused. Hurting the girl was something he didn't want to do, but nonetheless it had to be done. He knew she was going to fight back, and it's not like he could have just left her unscathed. Besides what would have made him seem weak, something he and now her, definitely knew wasn't true.

Amy's alertness was beginning to fade, and at this point she was fighting to keep her eyes open.

It was the only thing left she was fighting for. She felt that if she did succumb to the effects of that drug, that it would be the final straw in her giving up, in her defeat. And she still refused to let this vile hedgehog before her, even if it was Sonic, win.

"How does it feel to be stalked Ames?"

She felt the humid summer air on her entire now unclothed form, as the hedgehog has ripped away the remaining clothes she had on. He had to admit, she looked very little like the girl that used to obsessed over things. Well her body didn't resemble her anyway.

He then swiftly unbuckled and threw his pair of jeans to the side, followed by the rest of his clothes.

Amy looked upon him, and closed her eyes.

She thought for a second, about what she ever did to deserve this.

Was it revenge?

Did he have something against her?

Or was it purely a coincidence?

...

The full moon shone brightly overhead as he slowly approached her.

...


	4. Aftermath

AN: Just wanted thank everybody who has read, and especially who has thrown a review to me. It's really really acknowledged, no matter how long or short, or whether or not it's positive or not. With this in mind, thank you Jeremy Lannigan, Project Shadow, and Dib07.

Sorry for it taking a little longer, I got busy =P

So this chapter will be the usual length rather than the shorter ones of Chapter 2. Just to let you know.

This starts off in first person btw.

Cedars of Lebanon

III

If there was one thing that I was gifted at, speed was definitely it.

Sure, if you watch track and field events they hold throughout the world, you'll find some insanely fast people out there.

But, can they reach Mach 1?

Nope, not even close.

This was one of instances in my life where I was thankful I was given the speed I possessed. I looked to both sides of me and silently watched the blur of snowcapped mountain peaks and forests pass me by.

Yes, I was going fast enough where I couldn't even make out much in the way of what was around me. Recently I haven't had the desire, or better yet the need to bother going this fast. The last few months have been the most peaceful I've experienced in a long time. Sure I loved the thrill of the adventure, of the race against time to defeat a scheme planned out by ol doc. But even he's been uncharacteristic quiet; definitely non Eggman-like behavior.

But today it wasn't about Eggman.

It wasn't that the world was in threat of an attack, it wasn't that we were looking for the chaos emeralds, it wasn't that I had challenged Shads to a race and had won yet again.

It was Amy Rose.

And it was serious.

Up ahead I could faintly see the outline of the outskirts of Station Square before me, growing larger by the passing millisecond.

Tails had called me this morning, and by morning I mean early morning. Like crazy early in the morning, I looked at my cell phone when he called and it read 5:30 am. Unless there was an emergency, I knew that he wouldn't have called this early for anything.

All he said to me was to get to the hospital as quick as possible. The fact that he actually bothered saying "quick as possible" definitely struck me an unusual, considering my out of this world speed and all.

I saw the doorway of Station Square Medical coming up before me, and within a second I was inside. I immediately found the first nurse I could see, and requested Amy's room number.

"Come this way, a fox by the name of Miles notified me you were coming," she responded, as if she already knew me, which she likely did.

We came down the hall and to a room numbered 1201. I noticed the little folder holder on the door, and saw Amy's name quickly written on the top of the file, and cringed for a second as I thought I saw the word critical circled next to it.

We walked in the door to find Tails seated on one of the two chairs available, the chair moved as close as would be allowed to the bed.

But my eyes went to Amy first, and I nearly fainted onto what I saw.

She looked as if she had been abused, and beaten. A large cast, clean as if it was done an hour ago, was fixed on her left elbow, giving me the impression of it being badly broken. Bruises in varying colors and sizes went up and down her legs and arms, with dark purples being the dominate color. A couple painful looking bruises even plastered her face as well. She looked faint and very pale in color to her normal pink tone, and one of her now longer bangs was completely cut off her head, and that area had been carefully wrapped in bandage.

I could feel a tear slip down my own face.

Who would have done this to her?

I glanced over at Tails and could tell in an instance how much emotional pain he was in. The three of us were like a close knit family to one another. Tails had always been like my little brother, while I acted and filled in the role of the older brother for him. Amy had always watched out for him, kind of in a big sister role. But they were great friends, and she was always the first person there for him when I was unable to be around.

Amy and I have an infamous relationship. In the beginning she was downright obsessive of me, always constantly trying to get me to date her or do kiss her, you get the picture. But to my surprise she finally grew out of it, and I remember that conversation we had one day, where she apologized for her behavior. I was just relieved that I didn't have to run away and avoid her all the time anymore. Since then we've grown into great friends, and soon I actually felt a brother sister connection to her. It was very foreign at first, but having a sister figure is something that I can say is a blessing.

Tails hadn't said a word since I walked in the door. But he calmly lifted himself off the chair, and walked directly into my arms. I could hear him quietly sob into my chest, and gently held him against me. Tails had turned 14 this year, and seemed to be maturing a lot over the past couple of years. But at this moment, it felt like he was eight years old again, and I had just found him like I did long ago.

"Tails its okay. We gotta stay strong for Ames now, she'd want you to stay strong buddy."

His sobbing slowed down some, and he looked up at me and gave me the faintest of nods, letting me know he has indeed heard what I had said.

The nurse beside me looked touch by our small little encounter, and was respectful enough to let me comfort Tails before continuing on about Amy.

"Mr. Sonic there are also other injuries she sustained as well, if you'd like me to show you."

My heart sank into the pit of my stomach. More injuries?

She gently went on the side of the hospital bed she was currently asleep on and gently lifted her up onto her side to give me a view of her back.

I nearly lost it right there at that very moment.

Her back has cuts and lacerations all over it, some of them looked very deep and many of the cuts were oddly shaped, not the normal knife or paper cut deal. They were cleaned up thoroughly by the nurses as I could tell, and thankfully none of the areas looked to be infected.

I started to cry a little bit again after the nurse laid Amy back down on her back with care, making sure to not cause her any more pain than she must be feeling.

"We believe that the injuries were caused by some kind of brick, as the roughness of the marks on her back resembles them," she softly responded, "And Mr. Sonic, Mr. Prowler, we have discovered the initial crime as well with the help of local police."

We both silently let her go on.

"We have concluded that she was raped, as the evidence found at the crime scene solidifies this," she informed, a look of sadness matching the look that we had. "I'm so sorry. Please, if there is anything she needs, notify me immediately. " We both nodded and thanked her for all the help; and with that she turned around and left the room, closing the door quietly with a small click as she walked out.

"Sonic…?"

I looked over at Tails who seemed to both visibly be emotionally hurt, but also remotely shocked.

"Who would do this to her?"

I was not the type to know how to answer questions, and this just so happened to be one of the occasions.

"Tails, I don't have a clue. If I had any idea, I would be out trying to find this guy. But this kind of thing something the authorities specialize in. What we should do now is just keep Amy comfortable," I tried to smile at Tails; he tried twice as hard to smile back.

"I got an idea, why don't you over to her house and get some of her stuff. Maybe the homier look would brighten her up once she's awake." I saw his face brighten.

"Sounds like a good idea, but promise you'll call as soon as you can if she does wake up, okay?"

I handed him the spare key that Amy gave me to her home. We both chuckled a bit at its appearance, as a bright pink key had only Amy's name written all over it.

I nuzzled the head of my brotherly kit, making sure he knew everything was going to be alright.

"I promise you know I will if that does happen."

He walked out of the room with a more normal looking expression than when I first saw him. I could assume pretty easily that he did figure everything would be alright.

Speaking of the room though, it was very bland. Then again, I am not the number one fan of a hospital either. In fact, I couldn't bear to be in one for more than a day or so.

The walls were a simple, plain jane sort of white color. On one side of the wall hung a picture of a meadow during a sunset, which was smart on the designer's part, looking at it did seem sort of relaxing. Heck, I always love to stop and watch a sunset when I'm off exploring. The way the sky turns into a palate of purples, yellows, and oranges would make anybody appreciate Mother Nature. I like it especially when the weather becomes cloudy; it makes even more variation come out.

I went and took a seat against the glass section of the room, closing the curtain as I did so. I found it to be a lack of privacy leaving them open while people are walking by. On another side of the room stood a large bunch of cabinets and a counter, lord knows what kinds of equipment was inside them. All I know was that I had no interest in finding out.

The only noise I could hear was the blips of the heart monitor that was attached to Amy. I didn't think it was necessary, as none of the injuries seemed to be "life threatening," but the nurse insisted to Tails it was just for safety purposes, and I plenty trust in the nurse and Tails.

I watched the little green line move with a smooth gentle pattern, but it seemed to get a bit faster.

The numbers on the side of the screen began to climb, and ever so slowly it went higher and higher.

All of a sudden the font turned red in color and the device began to beep loudly and often, which I knew was a really bad sign. So I sped out of the room and grabbed the nearest nurse, which just so happened to be the one I spoke with earlier.

"Wha.. what's happening?" I asked in fear as she administered something into an Amy's bloodstream, and slowly but surely the heart rate returned to the peacefulness of the green.

"When Amy was found, she had a large amount of a certain painkiller in her system. It hasn't been agreeing with her body well, as this is the second time this has happened."

I felt anger towards her for not mentioning something THIS important to me earlier when I had walked in.

"Um, and WHY didn't you mention this info beforehand?" I asked, my eyes glaring at the nurse beforehand.

"I'm terribly sorry Mr. Sonic sir, I thought I had mentioned it to you. If anything else occurs, please notify me accordingly." And with that the nurse exited the room.

I watched as she made her way out, a more worried expression on her face than before. It probably was my fault, as I kind of got angry at her, which is odd because I usually don't lose my temper. The darker side of me usually stays hidden, because I'm afraid of what happens when I turn into that state.

I don't want to find out anyway.

Xxxxxxxxx

For once, I was actually in a pretty content mood as I got out of bed this morning. I went over to my apartment window and opened it up, letting in a nice morning breeze, which carried the 60 degree morning air throughout my living room.

I looked down for a moment down to the avenue my apartment was on, and surveyed the busyness of the morning hours, with people heading to and from respective places. It was around 7 am, early for some on a day where one didn't have to go to work.

I had taken a leave of action from GUN, which I requested it straight to the top in command, Commander Abraham Tower. He gave it an easy okay, as he knew how much I had done in the past, and how I had done the work that even dozens of his top agents could never even think of doing. Times were peaceful too, so recently the agency hasn't had much in the way of missions or things to do. I negated a special agreement between him and myself, being that I would only return for certain high level threats or missions of significance.

Rouge followed my footsteps and requested the same plan also. Tower was more hesitant letting her leave, since I had already done so, but in the end decided to initiate the same agreement for her as well.

So that leaves me able to have a lot more time to myself. I did need it, as all the missions I was doing really was getting to me for some odd reason I can't pinpoint. Maria started to pop up in my head again, and I began to get these vivid, almost eerily lifelike dreams every night. There was even one where I had gotten up and for almost half an hour, still believed that I was in my own dream. That ended once I tripped over my shoes I had left somewhere.

Those dreams got me really depressed again, well in a sort of "downer" mode if you ask Sonic. Annoyance if you ask me.

But yesterday, was the most unexpected happier and most interesting days I've had really since I was back at GUN. I decided to spend the entire day with a certain pink hedgehog; this being Amy Rose.

It was a rather odd meeting for the first time in months, as I fell out of a tree to discover her standing near it with a very confused look on her face. I cursed at my inconvenient luck in the beginning, as I specifically went to nap or relax in this said tree because I could be alone, only to end up not getting this opportunity.

But… I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy the time went spent together. To be perfectly honest, I was expecting the normal flurry of activities a girl like Rose would enjoy, basically, activities that I loathed and hated. And we she first mentioned the movie idea, I mind groaned at the sheer thought of sitting through a mundane romantic comedy, or one of those so called "chick flicks." But less than an hour after I decided to spend time with her, I was sitting in a theater watching Hobo with a Shotgun; A violent, gory, humorous R-rated movie. I assumed she was able to get in due to the fact that I looked a lot older than her. Regardless, I was surprised if anything.

What got me more than the movie and the lunch we had at that really delicious Italian restaurant was what she said to me when we went back to my spot.

She told me I had changed.

I paused at the thought when she mentioned it.

I always held the belief that since I was technically created in a laboratory, I was unable to possess regular traits such as emotion, love, attraction, and so forth. But now looking back on things following the day we spend together, I suddenly realized that I have experienced some of this already. I felt a sense of anger when I lost Maria, and I felt a sense of happiness yesterday hanging out with her.

Then again, what is love, and how do you feel it? I've been told by Rouge the one time I asked about it that love is something one feels when around somebody they care for deeply. She mentioned how one's heart would quicken in pace when around this person, how they would never want anything bad to happen to them, and how one would want to spend a lot of time, and possibly the rest of their lives with them. She also mentioned some other things I that I didn't have a recollection of.

I knew I never wanted Amy to get hurt, so was that love?

That couldn't be it, because I didn't want Tails or Rouge or anybody else to get hurt either. And I was pretty confident in the fact that I knew I wasn't in love with Miles, just thinking the thought got me bewildered.

Would I like to spend a lot of time with Rose?

Well I did enjoy yesterday quite a bit, but how much exactly would be a lot of time? I wasn't the type to spend copious amounts of time with others, it got me annoyed easily. Then again, Rose did mention yesterday that I did change, and maybe that was part of it. It was the first time I hung out with a friend all day where I actually didn't complain once about what we were doing.

Would I spend the rest of my life with her?

Just as I was beginning to think about the question, I hear my cell phone buzz on the counter next to the coffeepot. It was still early as hell in the morning right?

I got up and walked over to grab it, curious onto whom it might be. I was dreading that it probably was GUN, and they had some so called "top secret" mission that was of the upmost significance, and they needed my help.

I picked up the small beat up phone, and flipped it open.

_1 unread message from Tails_

Tails? At this early an hour in the day? Something was up…

_From: Tails_

_Shadow, Amy got a severe attack last night. Come to Station Square General ASAP._

_Received:_

_Aug 11__th__ 2011, 7:20 am_

Speaking of not wanting Rose to get hurt…


	5. Clouds

A/N: So the last chapter was more of a transitional than anything, but I'm glad that everybody enjoyed it. Many thanks to Project Shadow, Nameria, Pablofails13, and TDI –Ryro-Eclares for their splendid reviews.

Now to just let anybody know, in connection with taking reviews, I'm also taking any suggestions on where I should take the story. Your ideas in a sense can help me with mine, so feel free to tell me what you predict might happen next, it'll help me with the story as it proceeds.

And also sorry for the longer wait, I got busy and had to leave the story for a couple of days. My parents came up to see me for the weekend, and I wanted to spend all my time with them (I did miss them). To make up for this I decided to write a chapter that broke my longer chapter record by 1000 words. =)

Otherwise, here is chapter 4.

Remember to please review =)

Cedars of Lebanon

Chapter 4

Sonic was doing everything he could from being paranoid.

He had already riffed through four different sport magazines in under a half an hour, but could never get into reading a single article. For every paragraph he started to look upon with his eyes, his mind told him to look up and check if Amy was okay. Sonic's emerald eyes always darted towards the monitors, and it consistently looked him back with that same steady pulse of Amy's heart, along with other vital readings. Overall to the normal being uneducated on how hospital technology worked, it seemed if everything was a-okay.

It had been close to a few hours, and he started to worry about Tails as well. Was the distance between the hospital and Amy's home as large as he thought? And it wasn't like the kitsune was walking to her home, he drove his X-tornado G here. Sonic always was impressed at his inventions, and he was equally impressed by how he had the ability to take one of his old beat up Tornados and transform it into a car. On top of this, the car had a sleek futuristic look that combined with the resemblance of a corvette, and was also 100% electric. Brilliant, like always.

He went on assuming that Tails was taking long because of indecisiveness. Sonic only hoped that he didn't decide to pack his car to the maximum with Amy's belongings, or else the hospital room would become an exact copy of the girl's pink bedroom.

For the hundred time of the hour it seemed, he glanced up at the monitor and again got the same repetitive readings he had received so recently. Sonic threw the fourth magazine back in the straw basket next to the chair Tails had been sitting it. The kitsune had probably asked a nurse for a couple, as he more than likely was trying to divert his worrying.

Sonic breathed out a long sigh, and got up to check on Amy. Looking upon her body, she seemed to be more peaceful now than earlier, as the expression etched on her face reflected this. He took hold of her hand and gently grasped it, feeling the pulse of her blood gently flowing throughout her body regularly. He was just thankful that most of the injuries sustained were only physical. Had there have been internal injuries, she might have had to stay in the hospital much longer, and there might have been a long recovery period. And knowing Amy now just as well as himself, she would be miserable sitting in a hospital bed with nothing to look at. While Amy didn't possess his trademark speed, Sonic did acknowledge her sense of free-spirit, something they both shared equally.

His eyebrow rose, as her hand felt a touch cooler than he would normally assume to be regular body temperature. Sonic dismissed this as nothing out of the ordinary, but still felt the sense inside that it might inline a deeper problem he didn't know yet.

He went back to sit down when he saw Tails' figure with a box that looked way too dense for him to manage. Sonic got up to help him carry it in, and gasped when he took hold of it and just how heavy the box really was.

"Jeez Tails, I said get some of her things. You just about packed her entire room into a box."

Tails shrugged, "Sonic she has a ton of stuff in her house, if I wanted to take her entire room I'd need a tractor trailer." Both of them laughed.

Together the duo put the box down next to the straw basket of magazines, being careful not to block the counter, in case a nurse needed to give Amy a test or some medicine. The box was set on the floor with a loud thud, nearly decapitating Sonic's foot in the process.

Sonic opened it up to look inside, and the first thing to hit him was the brightness of everything, since all the items were pink or some other shade of a vibrant color spectrum. Her pink comforter, a couple of books, a lamp, a small flat screen TV, a pink laptop, and some of her clothes was among the things in there. Sonic just chuckled to himself, as he knew that most likely Amy wasn't going to have to stay long, yet Tails had brought enough of her stuff to last her a couple of weeks and then some. He carefully pulled out the lamp with the light pink lampshade and walked over to the small table beside her bed and plugged it in, now giving the room a softer glow of light than the overhead ones.

Tails meanwhile was figuring out a good place to put her tv, when his head turned to the sound of a shriek echoing through the hallway.

Just about a second later, the door swung wide open, so quickly that it created a small breeze that spread throughout the room. In the doorway stood a normally emotionless ebony hedgehog, only in this case visible concern could be seen in his eyes. Both Sonic and Tails stood motionless and silent as he slowly strode over to her bedside and carefully sat next to her, making sure he didn't disturb her sleep. He gently brushed back a bang that had fallen in her eye, and began to survey all the damage Amy had on her body. He gritted his teeth looking at all the bruises that plastered her limbs, as well as the long cut that left a visible mark on her stomach. Shadow lifted up her shoulder just high enough to notice the deeper cuts and scratch marks caused by the brick, and winced in seeing them, as if he felt Amy's pain as his own.

Sonic and Tails looked with both worry and to an extent curiosity as their acquaintance expressed his worry over Amy's condition. Neither Sonic nor Tails have ever seen Shadow act in this sort of manner before; they were more used to his cold reserved demeanor he always kept as his outside skin. Inside they knew he did care for others, just not exactly in a very visible manner.

After a couple of minutes, he turned his head towards them, almost asking a question just with his eyes alone.

"Who would do this to her?"

Sonic shook his head, but it was Tails that responded. "We have no idea. I was called to come here by her nurse early this morning, she said it was an emergency and to come as soon as I could. Police are currently looking around for…"

"Yeah, like the fucking police around here are going to find anything meaningful. If they were doing their job, we wouldn't all be in a hospital as Amy lies in this bed with these injuries." He replied in a harsh tone. "Now do we know anybody who would do something like this? I don't think it could be Eggman, could it?"

Now it was Sonic's turn to respond. "Eggman never had done this much physical harm to anybody other than me before. Would he have done so much harm to Amy of all people?"

"We have no idea, but he is the only person to suspect as of now," Shadow said.

"So what do you want me to do, go ask him or something? Asking a villain if he created a crime, what wonderful idea…"

"Sonic, don't give me those smart remarks, I'll slam you face into that wall."

"Well you just come storming in here, nearly breaking down the door, and within minutes assume that we haven't had any thoughts about Eggman doing this. I've been thinking about who could have done this for hours now, I have nothing."

Tails stood ringside as the two hedgehogs continued to bicker at one another.

"Well instead of sitting in here thinking about it, perhaps you could go over to the crime scene and maybe take a look for yourself? I already did, and you can even see on the brick where she had been pinned up against it."

"Okay, so what lead does this give us? " Sonic questioned.

"Well, so far nothing. Eggman is still a possible suspect, so I suggest you go and look for him," Shadow responded.

"Alright fine, in the meantime can you and Tails take care of Amy?" He asked reluctantly towards Shadow, as he wasn't crazy about leaving Tails and him together. They didn't get along very well, and never exactly talked or interacted much in the past.

Shadow scoffed a bit at Sonic's straightforward question, a bit peeved onto why Sonic wouldn't trust him with the task of watching Amy, who was in a deep sleep to begin with.

"Sonic we'll be fine. Besides, Tails is plenty old enough to stay here by himself, as he does live alone if you haven't noticed. I only came because I was worried about a friend," he added at the end, trying to persuade the cobalt hedgehog he had come solely for this reason; Sonic seemed only half convinced as judged by his half confused, half curious facial expression.

"Alright I'll trust you. But call me immediately if anything happens," He sternly replied towards Shadow, but glancing a look at Tails, knowing full and well the fox would make sure to notify him of any emergency. With that, Sonic walked out of the room, carefully closing the door this time, almost as if he was trying to annoy Shadow.

Tails at this point was still standing by the box full of Amy's belongings, glancing with a questionable expression at Shadow. The kitsune and the ebony hedgehog both stood at opposite ends of the room looking intently at one another, waiting for the other person to say something. However, the silence stayed, and when Tails realized neither of them had anything to say, he continued to unpack Amy's belongings and put them around the room.

Shadow meanwhile was awfully curious concerning Sonic's unpleasant attitude he had just shown. Even if Shadow yelled or complained to the blue blur, never did he get a nasty sarcastic tone like before, and it raised a couple of flags. Then again, Shadow assumed that he could have just been overcome with worry about Amy, just like he was.

"Tails, I'm sorry to make you uncomfortable there. I'm just wondering, was Sonic in a bad mood before I got here?"

The fox shrugged, not knowing the answer, "He seemed stressed a bit, but not in any sort of bad mood per say. I was out for a while too, so I'm not entirely sure. Why do you ask?"

"Nah no reason specifically. Just a bit curious, that's all."

The two continued their silence, the only noise being made consisting of the blips of machine measuring Amy's hear t rate and vital signs, and the sounds of items being placed around the room.

Shadow meanwhile decided to try something to truly find out how Amy was doing. But it required near silence and a multitude of concentration, as he had only tried it out once before.

He went for it anyway, Tails didn't seem like he was going to bother Shadow at the slightest.

xxxxxxx

(1st person)

Clouds.

Tons of them.

When I was little I always thought clouds were in similarity to cotton or pillows. If someone were to jump on top of a cloud, I assumed it to be the most comfortable feeling in the world, and it made me always want to go skydiving someday. But discovering that the planes people skydived out of didn't go that high discouraged me.

When I turned five my parents told me that the clouds we actually nothing like I had imagined them to be, which you could imagine got me pretty upset. So of course in my stubborn nature, I disagreed and wanted to prove them wrong. I ended up calling the operator and asking for a number to the nearest skydiving company, only to be denied because the operator was easily able to figure out that I was only five years old. My plan was to skydive during a cloudy day and try and fall onto one. If I was right, then I would easily bounce and land on top of it rather than go through it. I became so overjoyed at the idea at finally proving mommy and daddy wrong, as I promised I would someday.

Well over the years I did, but perhaps the one thing they promised that I always took near and dear to my heart was what they said when they gave me an amethyst necklace. They told me that you may always strive to prove us wrong, but please don't prove us wrong when well tell you this. They said three words… never get hurt.

And that was also the day that I lost them both in a car accident, gruesome was the adjective told to me by police. I was ten years old by then so I understood what it meant. Purely accidently they said, the other driver was not drunk, wasn't on any drugs at all, not even a painkiller. The accelerator pedal on his car got stuck downwards, and he was trying with everything he had to stop the car, but it was too late. Both cars were nearly destroyed, and all three were killed instantly.

So since that day, I made a little oath to myself and my parents. The first was that I would never, ever take off this amethyst necklace that I still had. The second was to never get hurt just like they had told me.

It seemed like such a corny little phrase, almost like something every parent would tell their children. Brush your teeth, put away your clothes, no loud music, all of those were things I got told when I was growing up. But there was something more to the don't get hurt part, and I was sure I knew was it was too. Sure, everybody will experience physical pain at some point in their lives, whether it's as simple as a pin prick of a needle of a flu shot, or something as serious as internal injuries. But hurt can be emotional, mental, and much more than that. I understood finally that they just wanted me to be happy basically. To not have to deal with an abusive boyfriend, a disease pandemic, or the aftermath of a tornado.

Now thinking to myself, I questioned whether or not that that promise we once had been broken or not. I was feeling every single hurt at once, the physical pain, the mental torture, and the emotional stress, as if all of these were rolled into one. It's like somebody poured poison over my world and watched as everything slowly began to fade away and melt down to nothing. Hopefully I still had the necklace on, otherwise I would have broken both promises at pretty much the same time. Seems oddly ironic looking at it.

Speaking of which, what was I doing floating around all these clouds anyway. I began looking more closely at them, and realized that they resembled people and places. I saw a small one that looked fairly close to Tails, there were even two smaller clouds near the back of it that resembled his twin tails, I smiled at that.

Another cloud passed to my left and looked like a huge ice cream cone, and one to my right looked like Knuckles, or as close as can be exactly. I could imagine him attacking a cloud that looked like him because he thought someone was impersonating him, which fits how gullible he is; I giggled at the thought of it.

But suddenly behind me rose a gigantic cloud, both in size and height that easily dwarfed the others in comparison. It was easy, especially for me, to see that there was the resemblance of two hedgehogs in the cloud. These obviously were Sonic and Shadow.

Then I remembered what had just happened not too long ago.

My Sonic, he was the hedgehog who I spend multiple years chasing, trying to win his heart over yet failed at every attempt. My Sonic, he was the one who now turned into a brother figure to me, and always made sure nothing would happen to me, trying to help me keep the promise I had made to my parents those many years ago.

But that trademark style of his, how he talked, his mannerisms, and down to the feature that I admired about him most…

His emerald eyes.

I stared into them, full of fear, sadness, and betrayal, and he stared back at me with the most unemotional expression I had ever seen from him in my entire life.

The clouds around me began to drift away from the cottony white color, shifting their tint towards a grayer and duller hue. I could begin to feel tears start to flow down my face yet again, I wiped them away and tried to ignore this. The spaces between them grew darker, and I felt the light and any brightness associated with it begin to be sucked completely out of the air and disappear into nothing. I started panicking, and frantically began to look from an exit, or at the very least a space brighter than the one I was in now. But the more I looked, the darker it got, and the more difficult it was to even see more than a couple of yards in front of me.

_Amy!_

I turned at the direction of my name being called. To my right I saw the faintest of lights, I was far enough from me to cover it up with a fingertip. But nonetheless, I began trying to push myself in that general direction. Remember, I was still floating around and trying to move when you're floating is a challenge in itself, let alone to try and make myself go in the correct direction.

I got an idea to try and swim over, as if I was in water. Sure enough, I slowly began to glide through the air, and the brightness began to grow in size. I was sure I could faintly make out the figure of someone there, although it was much too small for me to see.

A massive dark gray cloud suddenly sunk onto my path, and refused to move out of the way. It had blocked the light I had once saw, and now the brightness was nearly gone.

_Just go through it!_

That same voice, it was telling me to just break through the cloud. I continued to swim through the cloud, the moisture almost acting like water in a pool, making it even easier for me to float towards the light.

Once I reached the other side of the cloud, I saw someone sitting on a cloud surrounded in an aura of bright light, making the space around us seem like a mixture of light and dark together.

It took me a second to realize it was Shadow.

He was seated on a cloud before me, worry filling his eyes as he stared straight into my own, while I stared back. I had never seen him with this much concern for anybody in my entire life, the compassion I could feel from him was incredible.

I ran up and tried to hug him, only to fall right onto my face and into a soft cottony cloud floor.

"I'm assuming you now know I'm transparent."

I glared at him for a second, and attempted to put my hand on his, only to again go through him.

"Shadow, why exactly are you transparent?" I asked curiously.

"Not important. What's important is you right now."

I took a seat next to him, both of us facing the path I had just gone through only a minute or so ago. He seemed to be normal calm Shadow behind the worry.

"You do remember what happened right?"

My eyes started to well up, as the thought of Sonic betraying me filled my mind once again. Shadow only had to glance at my reaction to know the answer to his question. I jumped up in surprise as I felt a hand on my shoulder, and looked over to see Shadow genuinely concerned, the glove from his hand in his lap.

We sat in silence for a little while as I dried off my eyes from the small amount of tears that had been forming. I was the first to speak up again.

"I have two questions…"

He turned so his entire body was facing my own.

"One, how are you here? And two, why are you here?"

"Well to answer your second question first, I was truly worried when I had heard what had gone down. So I wanted to make sure you were okay. And we're currently in your subconscious; it's the only reason you're not more in a panic or unstable mental state," he explained as simple as he could.

"Since you were unconscious, I decided to use chaos energy in order to enter your mind, to see if I could communicate directly to you. I've only tried this experimentally once, I'm surprised it's worked so well this far honestly."

So Shadow had the power to infiltrate anybody's thoughts? Sounded like a gigantic lack of privacy in a sense.

"So you can see anybody's thoughts at any time?" I questioned.

Shadow shook his head, "I can't see what you're thinking. I can only communicate one on one with the person. Don't worry, I'm not a mind reader Rose." He smiled for a second.

I couldn't help but blush at the ebony hedgehog's smile. Although it seemed a bit forced, it was appreciated that he was trying to go out of his comfort zone in order to check up on my condition.

"So what's going to happen when I wake up?"

Shadow's more positive attitude all but vanished when I asked him this. It seemed like he was uneasy about talking about this, and his expression easily reflected this.

"You're not going to be the same happy and cheerful individual when you wake up. Things like this really can mess up a person mentally, and you are no different."

I was honestly very confused at this moment. Wouldn't I be messed up in the head now if Shadow was right? Right now I felt betrayal and sadness and such, but otherwise I felt normal. What I found most odd was that I felt absolutely zero pain physically.

"Why don't I feel anything like this now?"

"Because , we're in your subconscious. You won't feel it here, but you will once you wake up. Trust me."

Silence filled the air between us again.

"How painful is this going to be for me?" I asked, very nervous and worried about just how much of a shock I was going to be in for once I woke.

"I have no idea honestly. When I lost Maria, it took me years to get over it. Mind you, I was the loner type who lived life individually. I always thought that I didn't need help from others, and this was the reason it took me so long to get over that."

This made me curious onto how Shadow used to behave before the tragedy of Maria. Perhaps he was a loving interactive individual, and maybe he did smile more and make room for more fun and happiness in his life. The Shadow I've experienced rarely smiled or enjoyed having fun. He treated live with so much seriousness that it made anybody hard-pressed in spending time with him. But maybe all he needed was somebody to attempt to…

"Rose, you have all the help to get over this that I didn't. You have friends to be there for you, and watch and aid your every step. Not to mention how strong you are. You don't lose hope, even when anybody else has. Even I don't possess that quality."

I smiled with approval at his compliment to my perseverance, even if he didn't see it in the same sort of light.

I realized though that it would be in best interest if I stayed with somebody while I got over the event. I lived alone, and putting a panicky and mentally unstable being alone is one of the more duller knifes in the drawer. I wasn't sure whether or not to stay with a girlfriend or somebody else close however.

I could stay with Cream and Vanilla, and while they're nice and I love both of them dearly, they might overdo it a bit. I was grown up after all, I don't need to be treated like a small child anymore.

Rouge was an option, but I wasn't exactly a huge fan of her lifestyle. How awkward it would be for me to be around if she decided to bring somebody else into her home to, well, do things with. Being around to listen to these things didn't really spark any sort of interest.

Tails was an option, and probably one of the better choices I could make. I've already been to his home on numerous occasions, and already knew where everything was. Plus, we have a family bond, and he won't baby me like Cream's mother might. Then again, would he be too busy with his inventions?

Knuckles and Sonic were both not options. Knuckles was a little too clam and quiet for my liking, and would be too busy emerald guarding to take care of me. Sonic would give me constant nightmares about the event to begin with and at this point was the worst choice.

Speaking of Sonic, I wasn't sure what to do about him. I don't know if my mind was playing tricks on me at the time or not, but every time I think about the rape, his face is the one I see. I only could imagine my reaction to being face to face to him would be. Would I scream in fear? Would I attempt to attack him? Or would the brotherly relationship he had with me suppress me from doing any harm to him, or even letting anybody else know that he was the criminal at fault?

"Shadow… what would you do if somebody near you betrayed you?"

His reaction looked like he had been caught off guard by the question I had pulled from my thoughts.

"I would want to never see them again. But I wouldn't kill them," he responded simply, "Why do you ask?"

"Oh nothing, I was just thinking about some things."

The clouds around us over the last ten or so minutes began to lighten up in color once again, shedding the hues of dark gray and black that they had not so long ago. Everything began to look brighter once this happened, much to the pleasure of both of us.

"Rose… why don't you stay with me?"

Now was my turn to be off guard. I knew Shadow was willing to help me and all, but to have me stay with him knowing full and well how much he dislikes company, especially with him 24 hours a day.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"A hundred percent sure."

I smiled, and scooted over to give him a hug, and to my surprise he returned it to an extent. We broke away from one another and he smiled, and behind his grew a pure white light, almost in the form of a doorway. Slowly he got up onto his feet, leaving me sitting on the cloud top alone while watching what his next move would be.

"Time to wake up Rose," he said, and with that walked straight into the light, growing ever so tiny until I could not see him no matter how hard I tried.

I got up off the cloud, my legs a little tired from all the air swimming I had done before. I stared into the light for a couple of seconds, afraid of what the outcome of walking straight into it would be.

But Shadow did say I had the perseverance he didn't correct? And on top of this, for some reason, following him seemed like the safest thing to do.

I closed my eyes, and walked straight into the pure whiteness before me.


	6. Emotion

A/N: Not that anybody bothers reading author's notes, but the week after I wrote the last chapter was pretty crappy to say the least. I was incredibly anxious to write the next chapter and get it out quick, except work and school kept me from doing so. With this, I wasn't able to start the next chapter until nearly a few weeks plus after the last one. So sorry about the wait!

Shout outs:

Jeremy Lannigan: I'll just let you know I've never played Kingdom Hearts, so I don't have to slightest clue onto what you were comparing =P. But you're prediction is interesting, we'll have to wait and see now huh?

Project Shadow: For a guy, I guess I can make it sound pretty adorable easily =). I figured out that description is my top strength in my writing lately, have to work on action and dialogue though.

Dib07: I thank you for all your comments tenfold! Most of what you think is true, but with Shadow and Sonic you'll have to wait and see what happens. It might not be what you're thinking exactly, and hopefully it comes to be somewhat of a surprise =).

The Sky Hedgehogian Maestro: I'll make sure to get to your story soon! Also when I usually write I tend to stay with the more well-known Sonic characters, mainly because I know nothing about the Sat AM characters, or the other characters like the Babylon Rouges. And yes, I do switch from first to third person often, as I equally enjoy writing from both POVs.

PabloFails13: That would be an awful nice accomplishment if it did really get extremely popular. I'm not terribly concerned about this though. As long as I have a group who likes the story, I'll continue it. =)

I also thank everybody else reading and hope that you'll review if you're out there, I'm giving out shoutouts to my reviewers from now on.

And again I apologize for the long extended wait.

So onward!

Cedars of Lebanon

Chapter V

_It wasn't eggman._

Sonic's usually free open mind filled to the brim with various thoughts and questions. The only problem with them was that he didn't have any answers… not yet at least.

He continued in his pursuit of the overweight evil mastermind better known to the general public as Dr. Eggman, although he had his share of doubts. As sinister as he could be sometimes, Sonic knew he wasn't the type to hurt somebody to the degree of damage Amy had received. Honestly, he didn't think Eggman had it in him to hurt a female to that caliber, especially somebody as innocent as Amy. He on the other hand, was very possible considering the long and detailed history the two shared, although Sonic wished he didn't.

Then again, a world with no Eggman would also mean a world lacking bad guys to fight and destroy. As much as he loathed the schemes the doctor conjured up, he would be kidding himself if he ignored the enjoyment a good session of butt kicking gave him. Without that, he'd be at least twice as bored as he usually gets when there's nothing to do.

But here he was on the other side of things. Sonic was always used to being perused by the doctor in his latest idea to try and dominate the world, and he never really had to worry about trying to find out the doctors' whereabouts. Now here the blue blur was, running at his normal speed to try and fish out his location, the exception being that he had no clue where to begin. Sure he had the speed rivaled by many, but this didn't give him any advantage in a game of where's waldo.

He decided to check on the last place he had seen and beaten the doctor, which happened to be his underground base that had been built into a cave on the side of an enormous set of cliffs. Finding the doctor there would be more of a surprise than anything, as the attacks he and Tails made on the place destroyed almost half of the entire structure, including the generators that powered the place. Surely he couldn't have stayed in a place with no electricity? Sonic chuckled a bit at the thought of the overweight doctor trying to cook his normal amount of food with a fire.

He saw the cliffs coming up ahead, to the right of a couple thousand giant oak trees, the same trees he passed the last time. Suddenly he screeched to a halt upon the scene that was set up in front of him. Little piles of debris were strewn in different directions, and Sonic nearly thought that nothing had moved since they had last been here. The only noticeable change was the accumulation of rust on some of the metal scraps, but then again it had to have rained at least a few times since then.

He searched around for anything that resembled a secret pathway, a trap door, or some form of entrance to get inside, but to his dismay there was not a single sign of the base. However, he noticed a small pile of metal leaning up against the rocks in an odd way. Going closer to it, he saw that unlike the rest of the debris around him it lacked any form of rust, which meant it had to have been put there recently. Sonic rifled through the small pile, and once he did so uncovered a tiny stone cube, no bigger than an inch in area.

"He thinks he's so clever. Not really Egghead."

Sonic tried to pick up the minuscule cube, only to find that it was stuck to the ground in place. An invisible question mark began to form above his head, but soon faded away once he pressed down on it. The block sunk down until it made the faintest of clicking noises. He soon noticed the vibrating of the ground around him, and turned to his left as a large rectangular section of stone lowered into the ground, exposing a dimly lit passageway. Sonic was rather impressed, as the area around the stone door made no impression that there was a crack in the rock, let alone an entire door.

_Eggman got crafty this time huh?_

He took a piece of metal which lacked the rust off the others and got the sunlight to shine off it. Using the reflectiveness of the metal, he shined it into the pathway before him, checking to make sure Eggman didn't leave him a laser surprise to walk into. It came as a surprise when he didn't find a trace of any threat. So Sonic simply walked right into the carved out pathway.

Sonic noticed how dimly lit this so called path, or more appropriately, tunnel was. He could barely see his hand in front of his face, and couldn't even see his trademark red shoes beneath him. However, he did see a light coming up ahead in the form of an electric sort of torch type contraption. He attempted to remove it from the holder it was placed in, and to his delight the light source obliged. Sonic was just glad to not be in the dark now, he hated darkness, and closed spaces on top of this. Together they spelled out nothing but worry for the cobalt hedgehog.

He continued onward, going at an uncharacteristically slow pace, but Sonic knew that he could have traps set especially for him. The younger more arrogant version of himself would throw caution to the wind, but surprisingly the hero of Mobius gained a significant amount of patience and stealth-like skills, courtesy of a couple of sessions with the master of stealth himself, Espio. Now many enemies he faced not only had to worry about the blue hedgehog's head on attacks, but also his newly minted sneak attacks, almost always catching them by surprise.

Sonic then deadpanned at the sight before him, this being the enormous wall that basically was telling him to go back to which he came. He decided to look for a secret entrance within the secret entrance he was already in, which brought to mind some odd secrete entrance-ception. He felt along the walls for any sort of button type device similar to the one that opened up this hallway, as he was certain that there had to be something that leads to another room. Unless Eggman was really serious in making decoys this intricate, which was an option as unlikely as it seemed.

However after several long minutes of elaborate searching for any sort of secret entrance, Sonic found nothing. Sighing in defeat, he turned around to head out of the small pathway, not noticing the small vibrations that went throughout the area.

He soon found himself falling down into complete darkness.

Xxxxxx

I had no idea how fast time moves outside of the subconscious, but once I returned out of the pink hedgehog's mind, it was already the next day. I realized this instantly due to just how hungry I was, as my stomach growled with authority.

Quietly I got up from where I was seated and looked at Amy's face again. She seemed evermore peaceful now, I assumed that my plan to converse within her mind worked wonders. It was still risky of me to have done it though, I could have made her emotions more unstable if I said something wrong. That could have possibly resulted in more pain.

My hand reached over and brushed a few bangs out of her face. She seemed to have moved around a bit when I had spoken with her, which was a good sign. And her complexion was improving at a rather impressive pace. It's as if she had a special ability that was aiding her in healing, which she surely didn't possess as to my knowledge.

I walked around the space of the room for a minute or so, only realizing now that the foxboy was nowhere to be found. In fact, he was the lone soul watching over the pink hedgehog.

I did notice a small note folded up on the seat next to where I had been communicating with her, addressed to me by the fox. Tails didn't have the most legible writing in the world, strange considering just how much writing and drawing he does for his blueprints and such. With this in mind, one could consider his handwriting to be extremely neat.

Nonetheless the small note was to inform me that many other friends of Rose's had arrived, many whom I knew. He also made mention of leaving a sandwich and a bottle of water in the room for me, as apparently he did realize what I was doing at the time and didn't want to interrupt. The last little section at the bottom mentioned how he had gone out to tell everybody the news of what had happened, as he didn't want everybody flooding Amy's room at the time. He mentioned if I could come out and speak with everybody once I had finished my telepathic conversation.

I looked on the small table beside the chair I was in and noticed the sandwich and water placed there just like he had said. But I could suppress my hunger for a couple more moments while I went and informed everybody of her condition.

I walked out of the room and into a waiting room area not too far down the hall. In the small waiting room sat Rouge, Knuckles, Blaze, Silver, Tails, and Cream, who was fast asleep on Tails chest. I failed to take the time from before, and noticed that it was only eight in the morning. Knuckles was asleep, while Blaze was asleep in Silver's lap, Silver also being asleep himself. The lone person awake was Rouge, who was eyeballing the articles of an old edition of Cosmopolitan.

I gently nudged Tails awake before I did anything else, and asked him if he could watch Amy while I talked to Rouge. He nodded and carefully moved Cream so that she was sleeping in an upright position. Surprisingly I had thought that this would wake the small rabbit up, instead she continued to sleep peacefully.

"Morning Shadow," She said with a hint of sadness in her voice. I safely assumed that the news had been told to all of them by Tails.

"I'm guessing you heard everything correct?"

"Yeah, little foxboy here told us everything. Honestly I'm shocked something like that would happen to her. She's so innocent."

A silence returned between us for a few seconds as I took one of the last seats in the room next to her. "I know, I was in there trying to speak to her in her subconscious."

Rouge's eyes got a bit wider for a second when he mentioned that. "Wow. How did you accomplish that?"

"I had only tried doing it once a long time ago, but at the time I thought it was worth it so I tried contacting her telepathically. It required a lot of fishing to lure her towards me, but I was able to talk technically directly to her."

At this point Rouge was quite intrigued as she had put back the magazine she was reading, and was sitting straight up in her chair as opposed to earlier on.

"Well how is she holding up?"

"That's the tricky part, she seemed to be fine in her subconscious, but I know that she's going to be a mess when she wakes up. Long story short I told her she could stay with me for the time being."

"Stay with you? Shadow, the girl is going to be an emotional wreck when she awakens. Not for nothing pal, but you were never the emotional type. "

I crossed my arms and shot the batgirl a threatening glare, although I really had no desire to argue or fight at the moment. She merely dismissed it.

"The bigger question, is did she accept?" She questioned.

I simply nodded to her surprised look. And I explained why.

"Although I have never had the vile act she had happen to her, I did go through an emotional phase with Maria, if you remember me mentioning," My expression soured a bit at the mention of  
>Maria, as bad as I was trying not to bring back memories. Rouge seemed to notice this, as she wore a more understanding expression. "So with this in mind, I thought it would be best if she stays with me, considering she'll be unstable just like I was. And this time I'll be able to help her through it."<p>

"Actually, you make good points. And I think it'll be good for both of you."

This was my turn to cock my head sideways because of this. Surely she didn't mean what I thought she did?

"Oh Shadow you know exactly what I'm talking about," she exclaimed in a soft tone, fully aware that everybody else in the room was still fast asleep.

"If you think I'll use this to possibly get a date with the pink hedgehog girl, you're quite off the target."

Rouge just sat there and giggled for a couple of seconds before shaking her head.

"No no I'm just teasing you. What I really mean is you'll have somebody around you to talk to now. When was the last time you had any sort of companion for an extended period of time that cares about you?"

I didn't reply to what she had just said, partially because I didn't really know what to say. She had a point about this whole ordeal, something I had never really thought about.

I suddenly realized that after the entire incident with Maria I never did get over the event. The abundance of memories still haunt me every single day, whether it be for a few seconds, or for long hours on end. I naively tried to ignore this and continue on with my life, only to forget that she _was_ my entire life, no matter which way I looked at it. Without her, I didn't really have a purpose. I seemed to have found a purpose once I got to earth, I was helping Sonic and his acquaintances save the world from the evil caused by Dr. Eggman.

In a sense this could be labeled as ironic due to the fact that my father basically wanted to end life on planet earth. But I finally connected all the pieces. The only reason I was bothering to help Sonic and save the planet was because I thought that I was in debt to the world because I was the technical son of Black Doom.

What Rouge had said basically was why I originally bothered to spend the day with Amy right before she had gotten attacked. The girl needed a friend at the time, and the second I looked into her eyes, I didn't see the pink hedgehog girl who always used to chase after the faker. I saw a young, caring individual, I saw Maria. For some reason Amy reminded me so strongly of her that my mind was screaming at me to go with her and spend time with her. This was all despite the fact that Amy and I never really had a strong connection to one another back in yesteryear, as she was still chasing Sonic around.

And it just so happened that on the very same day, she ended up getting hurt. Not your usual illness or broken bone, but both physical and mental torture at the same time.

I could have stopped it.

…

I left her to go alone in the dark.

…

I should have stayed.

…

But I left.

…

I dug my nails into the wooden armrests of the waiting room chair I was sitting it, removing the waxy finish and digging up splinters. Rouge had a worried expression etched on her face as she stared deep into my eyes.

"Shadow… what's wrong?"

I could only turn my head away and talk into my chest.

"… I could have stopped it."

Rouge raised an eyebrow at my statement.

"I left her alone to walk in the dark that night. We had spent the whole day together, and she wanted to go and pick up something from a pharmacy. And I let her walk there alone!" My mind was screaming at itself while my mouth continued to pour the guilt I felt, "If I just had walked her there, I could have even skated her there and it would have been faster. But I left her alone!"

I slammed my fist into the wall behind me, making the entire room shake with a loud bang of my flesh meeting sheetrock. The loud noise woke everybody else up almost instantly, as I suddenly realized all eyes were on me.

I didn't care. If they thought I was a lunatic, or insane, I just didn't care.

The one time I finally let down my guard to somebody, to try and be more social since I knew that Maria would want me to be happy. But the second I do, disaster strikes, and here we all are in a hospital!

I look up to see the sympathetic look on the face of Rouge. Noticeably she's probably never seen a reaction from me like this before, I wouldn't exactly argue with her on that. She reaches a hand out to grab my shoulder, but I turn sharply away from her, denying her and everybody else's look of concern for me as I slipped and now was seated on the ground

Why worry about me? I did nothing but cause this right? They should be checking up on Amy.

And then I felt it. It felt warm… and wet. All I knew was that it clouded up my vision to the point where I couldn't separate everything in the room, as it all looked like a blur.

I only realized then that these were tears.

My tears.

…

I could hear Tails exclaiming Amy was awake in the background.


	7. Realization

A/N: First and foremost, I am deeply sorry for leaving everybody out in the dust for so long. When the holidays arrived, I basically dropped the story off my to do list and instead focused on spending time on my friends and family considering I was hope for a good three weeks.

Anyway I'm glad everybody seems to be enjoying the story so far, I'm having a ball thinking about idea for what I wanted to do with it. Recently though when I started back up again in writing the next chapter (this was back in the beginning of January) I ran into writer's block on what exactly I wanted to write about for the next couple of chapters. I had a firm idea of what I wanted to do in the future chapters, but I didn't feel like rushing the story.

So I decided to completely re-read and envelope myself into one of my favorite stories on this site, which is Cold Compassion by Anzgirlchbi and The Queen of Aces. It's one of my favorite stories, and it's a crying shame it isn't finished. But nonetheless, reading it provided me with plenty of different ideas on how I wanted to continue the story, and now I think I'm back on track. Oh and I highly recommend reading it if you never have.

I won't do shoutouts for this chapter due to the gigantic paragraph that I wrote for the author's note. Sorry about that.

Anyways, here's the next chapter.

Cedars of Lebanon

Chapter VI

Most of the people were caught off guard when they heard what resembled a pack of rhinos running across the hospital hallway. Now of course the sheer thought of a rhinoceros barreling its way through a hospital is downright outrageous and ludicrous at that. But then again, there were no wild Odd-toed ungulates in the hospital, only the mad rush of the friends of Amy Rose. Their excitement of her awakening could be compared to a homeless man winning five million dollars from somebody's dropped lottery ticket.

But here was Amy, finally alert and awake in her hospital bed, with her friends and close companions alike coming into her hospital room to greet the pink hedgehog.

Amy's hospital room was a rather amusing sight to the onlookers who were walking by at the present time. Sure, a bunch of friends excited to see a patient awaken was nothing out of the ordinary, but it was more the look of the room that most couldn't help but smile at.

Curtains hung off the window, followed by Amy's bedspread, lamp, books, and a multitude of other things. One had to be impressed with the job that Tails did with arranging all her things, not to mention that he was strong enough to bring a gigantic amount of her possessions to begin with.

Now one would expect Amy to be in a cheerful mood again seeing all her friends around her, plus the fact that she was actually awake even quicker than originally thought. The nurse and doctor who had been to her aid mentioned the severity of the injuries that she suffered and how much pain she was experiencing due to this. They ended up giving her a very strong painkiller as well as a sedative so this way she wouldn't have to be awake to experience the stark pain of her injuries.

The doctor was standing outside of the room as he watched her friends gather around her, a smile on his face at the little reunion. He did keep an eye on her heart rate on the monitor by the bed; unbeknownst to the rest of them, it seemed to be rising ever so slowly. He worried that she might not be ready to stay awake just yet, and that the pain was still there.

Meanwhile everyone inside the room was chuckling as Cream was trying to give Amy the biggest hug she possibly could without hurting her. Noticing this Amy did smile a bit, although she was feeling sharp pain throughout her body, not as significant as earlier on though.

"So don't hurt me for asking, but how do you feel?" asked Knuckles, who was still a bit sleepy considering he bolted upright from a deep sleep when Tails exclaimed that she was awake.

"It hurts… a lot," she croaked out as a response, her voice very shaky due to her weakened state, "I'll be okay I think though."

"We all hope so, you did scare the heck out of all of us," added Rouge, stroking her bangs while cautiously avoiding the bandage that covered the one that had been torn off. She and Amy had gotten a lot closer as Amy got older and matured. When she was still the fan girl that followed Sonic's every move, Rouge found her more to be a pain in the ass, no offense being directed to her. Anytime they interacted with one another they both ended up in an argument. Amy thought that she was trying to steal Sonic away from her, when in reality she wasn't even doing anything of the sort. Rouge knew that her looks made Amy jealous at the time.

Now however they would hang out much more often, with Amy turning into one of Rouge's best friends. Rouge herself considered it amazing how much she changed once she stopped pursuing Sonic. She stopped wearing the pink dress and red boots, and opted for mostly jeans and various t shirts. She stopped keeping her hair at the same length and let it grow out to her upper back, something Rouge wondered why she never did earlier. She even joked about how she couldn't be jealous anymore and how she looked just as beautiful as her now.

It was this reason why she nearly broke down into sobs when she first saw the damage done to Amy. The way her beautiful body was downright mutilated, and even just her complexion, it looked like she had nearly died, as her face was a light as could be shade of pink.

Rouge could only imagine what Amy's state of mind would be when she woke up, but surprisingly as she laid awake before her, Amy seemed to be okay.

However, Rouge did notice something about the look in her eyes.

There seemed to be a strong sense of fear that she never noticed before.

"I made you something just in case you need me!" Exclaimed the twin tailed kitsune, who was holding out a small device that looked like similar to a call button a normal hospital would have to signal for a nurse. Only this one was the size of a lid of a coffee cup, and had multiple buttons.

Amy looked at it a bit a bit puzzled, "It's… a button?"

Tails and the others just laughed, "Actually it's a signaling device I made for you to alert us if anyone of us is needed. See, each one of us has our own name under one of the buttons. So if you want any of us, just press said button and…" Tails paused while showing her the bracelet with a bright LED light built into it, "This will light up and also make a noise that lets us know to come help you. I made it while I was waiting for you to wake up."

Amy, although still in a great deal of pain even with the additions of the painkillers, couldn't help herself from smiling a bit at just how giddy and enthusiastic Tails was getting explaining this gadget to her.

"See it has Tails for this button, Shadow for this button, Sonic for this one…" He went on, pointing to the respective button while unaware of Amy's sudden change of expression.

Suddenly an all too familiar beeping was heard, and everybody's head turned sharply towards the origin of the noise… her heart monitor.

Tails eyes went wide in fear.

"Amy…?"

As if on cue, the doctor who was keeping watch yelled down the hall for a nurse to help him as they tried to calm down Amy, who was starting to spasm while her eyes rolled back into her head. From the looks of her movements and how high her heart rate was climbing to, a dangerous seizure was beginning to strike her now fragile body.

Thankfully the doctor swiftly pulled out the medicine needed and injected it into the IV that was attached to her arm. Slowly but surely Amy's movements died down completely, and the heart monitor returned to the value it was supposed to read.

Outside Tails, Rouge, and everybody else watched in horror as this occurred, with Cream hiding her head in Knuckles shoulder, afraid to watch her friend in pain.

"Cream Amy's okay," Knuckles said, turning her back around so she was facing the window of Amy's room, "It was just a little problem. She's might have some things like this happen while she's getting better."

"Are you sure Mr. Knuckles?"

He nodded and put his arm on her shoulder, Rouge watching and smiling at the small exchange between the abnormal pair.

Xxxxxx

The first thing Sonic thought of when he looked at the room he was in, was a business office.

In reality he wasn't that far off.

The walls had that same sort of grayish color that a normal business office had, coupled along with white tiled floors. Identical wood doors with what seemed to be a barcode on them lined the walls in the same position on each side, with equal spacing between each one.

Other than this, Sonic didn't see anything suspicious about the room in the slightest. He looked in every corner and space of the hallway from where he was sitting, but did not find anything that looked to be a camera, or a device that detects intruders. The walls and ceiling themselves were barren with the exception of a coat of paint and an air vent here and there.

Sonic began to wonder if this entire ordeal was just a decoy, a trap that would result in him aimlessly wandering the vicinity until he figured out that Eggman wasn't here at all. In fact, all this time could have been wasted while the doctor was escaping to another far off place where he would be impossible to track. He couldn't let that happen, but something was telling him that Eggman was indeed inside this maze of a place somewhere, he just sensed it in the back of his mind.

Anybody else he knew would call him insane for trusting a little sense in his mind, but he did anyway. It was just his nature to always go with his instinct, even if he even didn't think he was right. Amy gave him a ton of backlash because of this, especially when it regarded decisions that threatened his safety… and his life.

But it wasn't his life he was worried about now. It was Amy's, and for good reason.

He wondered how she was doing while he slowly made his way through various hallways, trying to find any sort of clue of which could be used to find the doctor. Sonic felt like it had been a day or two; he could feel it throughout his body, a contributing factor of his lack of nourishment since he first found this place. It's not like Eggman was going to leave him a snack to have though, and if he did it'd probably be jacked up with some dangerous chemical or poison.

But every time he thought about something, his mind continued to trace its way back to Amy. Sure, she had overcome injuries sustained in battle as well as psychological stress and other things, but a savage rape? Even with the will power she possessed, Sonic couldn't help but worry that she might be permanently scarred from such a nightmare, a nightmare that became all too real. Just thinking about how badly bruised and cut her body made him flinch as if he was mutually feeling the pain that she felt.

And if she was able to overcome this, how long would it take her?

Weeks…?

Months…?

Years…?

Sonic started to feel the room getting warmer, although it wasn't due to any change in the temperature of the room itself. Instead, he could feel some of his pent up rage over the incident flow through his veins.

And if almost on cue, he slammed his fist into one of the identical doors in the hallway.

The door responded by completely caving into itself in the center, its sections bursting into thousands of tiny splinters that flew across the room at multiple angles.

He stopped and for what seemed like hours, but was only a few seconds, and stared at the now partially demolished door and the wood fragments that littered the floor. Sonic then lifted his hand in front of his face, noticing many of the same tiny wood fragments embedded in his fur. A couple drops of blood fell onto the neutral color of the tiled floor, standing out like a sore thumb.

"_Since when do I get this angry?"_

Sonic felt… strange to say the least.

He never bothered to express anger when he felt it, as he always assumed it to be a dangerous emotion that only causes more problems than it does fix them. Shadow nearly destroyed the world when he was riding his anger fueled tenure with Black Doom years ago, but then again he ended up saving the world in the end, so no complaints.

The problem Sonic had with what just happened was not to do with the pain of the multiple amounts of splinters digging into the flesh on his hand, or how he actually enjoyed letting out some of his frustration.

No… the problem was that he didn't even know his own action until it happened.

Sonic just saw the door and hallway in perfect undamaged form one second, and then all of a sudden he looked again to find a smashed up door, and a floor littered with wood fragments.

It was clearly evident that he did punch the door, but he didn't remember or feel it.

The cobalt hedgehog decided that maybe sitting down and taking a rest wouldn't be out of the question.

Xxxxxx

When I was first created, I always seemed to ignore the elements of emotion most people embrace. I never really got scared, or happy, or excited, or worried. The only two emotions I ever remember feeling were anger… and love. Maria was the single living soul I ever experienced both of these with.

But now, over the past few days I felt like the indestructible wall holding back the rest of my emotions finally just decided to cave in on itself. With it doing that, came the flood of different emotions I was not used to feeling, ever.

I felt sadness when thinking about how I was the cause of all the suffering Amy has gotten. If only I had accompanied her to the pharmacy, instead of making her walk over there alone late at night.

I felt happiness in seeing her eyes finally open back up to the world, her gentle pupils looking at mine while I tried to tell here everything would be okay.

And finally, I felt scared.

Scared.

I wasn't sure if I should be angry at myself for feeling such a worthless and useless emotion like fear. I was always fearless, willing to take on anything or anyone in order to achieve whatever it was that I was after. Never had I been afraid or fearful of Eggman or even the time where Sonic nearly got killed. I wasn't afraid of that; I knew he wasn't going to die. My strong sense of pride shoved any fear I had out of the way.

But this was a different situation entirely.

When Amy suddenly blanked out and nearly went into cardiovascular arrest, my mind blanked out as well. I could only stand and watch as the doctor came in, shouting loudly for a nurse to come assist him as Amy continued to spasm. At least everybody seemed to be alert enough to get out of the way and let them take care of Amy, but I just felt this sense where I was fearful of leaving her out of my reach. I just had this thought that if she got out of my touch and sight, something bad would happen that could have been avoided. I almost nearly cost Amy her life with a stupid mistake, I was going to make sure that nothing like that ever happens to her ever again.

And I made a promise to myself.

When Rouge mentioned how Amy should stay with me due to me being in a similar emotional situation once, it made me think. Maybe having her with me could perhaps help me process and even aid me in escaping the endless pool of guilt I was feeling. Not to mention that I haven't really had a close companion stay with me for some time, it would be nice to have somebody I knew to talk to once in awhile, depending on if she wanted to listen or not.

Now though here I was, seated bedside to the pink hedgehog, holding her hand in mine while struggling to keep my eyes awake. I hadn't slept in what seemed like forever, but there was no way I was going to without seeing Amy awaken first.

I thought about going into her mind again.

I was able to do it before, the only difference being that she hadn't quite registered the shock of what had happened yet. Now she did, and her mind was most likely very unstable because of this. I could probably still communicate no problem, only I wasn't sure what would happen if the connection between our minds suddenly cut off. I hadn't actually failed in doing this ever, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Her red clock on the wall currently read 3:30 in the morning, so if I did do it now, there most likely wouldn't be anybody to disturb us or walk in on us.

I started shifting around in the chair, trying to get the most comfortable position possible since I wouldn't be able to move my body once I firmly inside her head.

"I figured you'd be in here."

I opened my eyes and looked at Rouge's shadow centered in the doorway, her facial expression telling me that she hadn't gotten proper rest either.

"Shadow she'll be okay, you know that. She has the most willpower and determination of anybody I know."

That I definitely did know for sure. Her never give up attitude rivaled Sonics, and she was that continual driving force behind us all, even when it seemed Eggman would win.

"Yeah… but how cracked with this leave her?"

Rouge remained silent as I watched her eyes for an answer.

"I don't know. Nobody does Shadow, not even Amy."

"What if she can't…?"

I felt a pair of hands cover my mouth as if I was saying something very wrong all of a sudden. Rouge looked directly into my eyes, and when she did, I couldn't help but notice a sense of anger present behind her stare.

"You need to stop beating yourself up over this. You cannot blame yourself for anything that has happened over the past couple days," she started, putting a more stern tone into her voice, although I could detect the sadness behind it.

"If you blame yourself, you won't be the only one suffering. Amy will feel your pain just as much as you will. She'll start to develop the mindset that she should have been more careful about walking in the city at night.

Shadow, she has enough to get over and worry about. One of you has to stay strong you know.

If you're going to help her recovery from this, your attitude needs to change sooner than later, otherwise you'll only be causing more harm than good."

I hadn't thought exactly about this until she made mention of it. I blaming myself over this hurts both of us in the long run. I didn't realize just how selfish this made me look until now.

We both just sat in silence with one another for a few moments. It was as if we were communicating just by looking at the expressions of one another; no talking or any speech at all. It reminded me just how close Rouge and I really were, even if we weren't romantically related or something. Now, we were just good close friends. Maybe I really do have close friends.

"I'm guessing you were going to talk to Amy right?" She did a little air-quote when she said the world talk.

She had fired an arrow in the dark, and it hit directly into the bull's-eye.

"How did you know that I was going to communicate using our minds?"

Rouge got up and was slowly walking out the door when she turned around

"Shadow, I still know a lot more about you than you think." And with that she made her way back to the waiting room.

I sat in silence smiling at nothing due to her comment. My focus returned as I began settling down into a comfortable position for when I tried to communicate with Amy.

After a couple of attempts, I found a position I considered fit. Closing my eyes I started to alienate myself from everything around me, eliminating any outside thoughts I might be having until I had one focused thought, which was Amy. Soon I could feel my mind making the connection with hers.

Opening my eyes, I found myself on the same cloud from before when I had last telepathically talked to the pink hedgehog.

Only there was major problem.

The cloud was a dark gray, almost a light black if it was a better way to describe it. Most of the clouds that were surrounding us were torn as if they had been sliced repeatedly and frantically with a sharp knife.

I only realized just how dark it was now with everything not being white like beforehand.

I got up and attempted to look for Amy, and found her way in the corner almost wedged between two of the broken clouds. She looked normal and didn't have any of the scars, cuts, and bruises she currently sported on her real self, but something seemed strange. I could only make out her back and the back of her head, as she seemed to be facing away from this area on purpose, as if she was trying to hide from something.

"Amy?" It's me…"

She looked over for a second, and when I saw her expression, the worry and fear I had earlier returned in full force.


	8. Help Me

A/N: I only got two reviews? Bummer, well I know people are reading though due to the amount hits I've gotten.

I want to send out another apology concerning my lack of attention to dates. I do not work well with deadlines, and I got busy and put the story on the backburner back in February. Since then, I had forgotten completely about it, and got so busy where I basically ignored entirely.

Even when I did get free time here and there, this just never did come back to my head. However I did get a message from a friendly reviewer who's story I was also trading reviews on in conjunction to my own, and this reminded me that I actually had nearly finished the chapter I had been working on .

Oh and if people don't favor the emotional side to Shadow, then this chapter might not be you're favorite.

So here is where things start to get interesting…

Cedars of Lebanon

Chapter 7

Xxxxxxx

"_Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief._

_Oh kill their inspiration, and sing about the grief…"_

Xxxxxxx

Everybody knows what happens when you eat ice cream too quick. You end up with a massive headache feeling called brain freeze, and for a little while you curse the living hell out of the damn ice cream for causing you such discomfort. However, you only realize later than the inanimate food item did not cause any harm, mostly because it isn't living. No, it was your fault for eating the ice cream too fast.

Getting off topic though, my head was killing me as I continued to walk across the chilly barren hallways of supposedly Eggman's secret underground hideout. The atmosphere felt off the more I searched through the halls, as if this repetitive boringness was his attempt to try and get me to quit.

Ha! What a stupid idea, even by the doctor's standards.

He knows the word quit isn't in the vocabulary our Sonic the Hedgehog. I never have acted out this verb, and never intend to even if my life depended on it.

But… if the doctor was trying to piss me off, he was doing a marvelous job at doing so.

Everything in these hallways was so damn repetitive. The doors, the door knobs, the tiles, the ceiling, the gray paint, and whatever else was surrounding me. It was eerie in an odd sort of way, it was almost like I was walking through the same paths over and over again.

Over and over again.

…

Maybe I was going in a circle this whole time and I never realized it?

It took me a few seconds to completely banish the idea of even turning around. What good would getting lost in the other direction do anyway? It would only make my journey more difficult than it already was.

Well it wasn't actually difficult in the actual meaning of the term, I mean I haven't fought any robot or really had to use much in the way of any energy. The only things I had to do were walk and search. And let me tell you something, walking is easy, although I would prefer quicker means of transportation. But I don't really feel like trying to run in a convoluted mess like this stupid underground base was, if it was even called that. I have to remind myself to mention to Tails that I finally used convoluted in a sentence.

No, the hardest thing was to search. Sure, when you lose something like a watch or a phone, that's something much easier to look for because you actually are trying to look for something, that something being an object.

But to try and search for something, when you clearly do not know what or where this "something" may be? Well that's annoying if I say so myself.

Nonetheless, I continued to search the premises.

And then finally… a clue stared me right square in the face.

It was a droplet, a single tiny little droplet of what looked like to be some type of oil, as evident from the slimy texture when I touched it.

Now I am no level that Tails is at mechanics, but I know that oil means machines, and with Eggman machines surely meant robots.

"Sonic the Hedgehog… please turn around and leave… NOW."

That voice, it sounded like a more humane version of Metal Sonic, even if he is still not human. The please part did strike me by surprise.

Sure enough, I turn around to see what looked to be a cleaner cut and finished version of my favorite robotic copycat. In a few seconds I could clearly see that he looked to be more shaped like myself, and he even had a nice new paint job.

"Well well, ol Metal Sonic got himself an upgrade didn…"

Metal didn't seem to care what I had said, as I felt a fist drive straight into my gut, followed by an extreme amount of pain spreading from the point of impact. I coughed, a few specks of blood flying out of my mouth.

Metal didn't move though, rather it just stayed staring at me after the hit, and I couldn't help but notice how much more menacing he seemed to look. Part of the upgrade perhaps? But he was much stronger than I ever remembered.

"Sonic, shut up and leave now."

Shut up? Yeah, like I'll listen to a robotic re-creation of myself.

I curled up into a ball and attempted a spin dash straight into the creations core, only to be caught rather easily with a pair of cerulean metal hands. Forcefully taking me out of the ball I was in, I cringed as the hands began to squeeze my ribcage area, tearing the skin on the surface causing some of my fur to be stained with the color of blood. I could tell from the scent.

But now I was getting pissed. What did Eggman want with me anyway, after all I came unannounced.

"Let me go you idiotic bot!" I tried to squirm free, only to discover that this hurt me more.

"Only if you leave."

Again, here was the request for me the quit. Didn't Eggman understand?

"Nice try bud."

Summoning up some strength in my legs, I kicked with all I had directly into Metal's legs. Caught off guard, it let me go and fell forward almost as if I had locked up his knees. The frame of his face smashed against the ground, the screeching of metal and tile flooding the once silent hallways.

Now on my feet thought in some amount of pain, I planted a hard kick to the side of its head, sending shiny blue paint and other parts flying off and scattering in multiple directions. The robot flew completely off the ground and hit the wall with a sick metallic thud, slumping down into a heap against the wall. Slowly though it got back up, only this time I could tell it was beyond pissed off now.

I began to move as his arm transformed into a machine gun and began to come after me, little bullet holes littering the walls as he attempted to get a good shot at me. Like I haven't been shot at before right?

"Sonic the Hedgehog, surrender now or prepare to meet dire consequences!" The metallic version of me growled with a closed mouth, surprising me that Eggman had built a robot that actually had a working and more normal sounding voice.

"Kiss my ass."

With that lasers started to fire from his eyes, leaving a trail of burnt black marks all along the tile, smoke rising when the laser hit the gray doors. Dodging one obstacle was a piece of cake for me, but dodging lasers and a machine gun in a small environment presented me with a bit of a challenge, something that I really didn't want.

Suddenly though the massive amount of weaponry being fired in my direction came to a halt, and when it did I stopped running and stupidly decided turning around was a good idea.

But it was as Metal had stopped firing at me completely. Not to mention that he was frozen in place it seemed.

I walked over to him, and noticed that it almost seemed as if he was shut off. I started to carefully examine him, seeing if there was some sort of off switch or something that had triggered his sudden freezing into place. To my dismay, I found nothing, but keeping my ears alert I made out a voice, a voice all too familiar to myself. It seemed to be coming from his head, and that's when I looked into Metal's eyes and noticed that he wasn't off like I had thought. Instead, the robot had static in his eyes, as if somebody had caused him to freeze in place.

"Metal Sonic, when I told you to find Sonic, I gave you NO order to kill or even hurt the hedgehog. Yes I may not like him very much and we may be rivals, but you MUST FOLLOW orders.

This is strike one. Three strikes, and you're out."

Oh hello Eggman.

The doctor's voice was loud enough for me to make out from what I would guess is the central processing unit of Metal's head. It seemed as if Metal went overboard on the whole "trying to hurt me" ordeal. Apparently he was supposed to only see if I was in the premises, but instead had decided to make me look like an intruder. When you think about it though, I was an intruder.

"On second thought… go ahead, kill him."

I froze, and within that second of freezing felt the oxygen leaving my body as fast as I could run. I could feel my windpipe collapsing as Metal's icy cold hand squeezed with as much strength as it could muster. Frantically I tried pulling on his hand and managed to loosen it enough for a quick breath of air, even with it being a musty as could be in this underground passageway. But with great precision it was able to clamp down on my throat again, sending me into panic as I realized just how much stronger it was.

Then… I felt something pulse inside my mind and spread through my entire body.

It was as if my blood became white hot and was burning me from the inside out. The pain was so substantial that I couldn't help but scream out as the sensation continued to pulse through my veins.

But that soon vanished, replaced with this other feeling. A feeling of just plain anger. Anger at myself, anger at Shadow for getting heated with me earlier, anger at the disgusting thing who hurt Amy and nearly killed her, anger at everything that resulted in bad things for me and my friends.

With a newfound strength, I took my hand and grasped Metal's arm. Within seconds, I tore the appendage clear off his robotic form, causing electricity to be emitted from the now split wires hanging from where his arm once was. Despite being a robot, I could see almost a small element of fear in his systems; he knew that there was nothing he could do to stop me though.

I stared straight into its nonexistent eyes, and growled as I tore the other arm off, sparks flying in a multitude of different directions. Holding the other arm, I swung the part with full force at Metal's head, sending the robot hurling into one of the gray walls of the monotone hallway. Walking over to it, I could see that the impact along with my hit caused it to be on the verge of falling into a heap, its systems struggling to simply stay on board.

Picking it up with a single arm, I started slamming it hard against the wall, over and over again.

I don't even know why. It was already clear that I had won.

Then I let him drop down onto the floor in a heap. Parts and pieces, circuits and wires littered the floor, and he was no longer on.

But I felt… better? I couldn't feel the hatred feeling from before anymore.

I slumped to the ground next to the mangled mass that once was a working machine, but then heard an all too familiar voice again blare from a speaker system I didn't even know existed.

"So Sonic… why are you so angry?"

Xxxxxxx

Being the ultimate lifeform and all, I usually try and hide the concern I have for something. People tend to think that I do that because I don't have genuine concern for something, when in actuality they're really far off.

The truth is that I'm terrible and processing and showing emotion.

This has always been the case since the last minutes I spent with Maria. I always had this corrupt mindset where I didn't want to show love or compassion when the only time I did, the person it was directed at got taken away from me. Never did I dare show this kind of kindness near Sonic, Knuckles, or any of them. Cream on occasion I did, but then again she was just a kid, and I couldn't bear displeasing somebody as cheerful and nice as her. It actually made me envy her a bit, how she was able to easily show so much emotion to all her friends when it was such a struggle for me.

Rouge was a different sort of story. The batgirl was smart enough to realize that I did care for everybody, even Sonic, though I constantly resented so.

When I saw Amy's eyes, for the first time I could really sense the pain within her own mind. I felt the sting in my own heart just looking straight at her frightened stare.

Her reaction to me was nothing sort of surprising, as she frantically tried to back through the small space she had been curled up in.

"Amy…"

"No… NO." She dug into the sliced up cloud behind her. I noticed that she was trying to make a big enough hole that she could fall through so she could escape.

I turned out to be right as suddenly she vanished from my view in front of me. Panicking, I rushed over to the spot and jumped through the opening myself.

It didn't work as well however due to my overall size. Amy was much more petite than me, so while she easily had the ability to squeeze herself through I just ended up getting stuck.

Thankfully wiggling my body a bit helped me get through; after all they were only clouds. It wasn't like I was trying to escape a prison cell or something.

"Now where could she have went…?" I thought out loud.

I started walking around the cloud surface, thoroughly searching all the little gaps between the clouds that she could fit into. It would have much easier to see her pink skin on white clouds than the gray ones that surrounded. The complexion difference was the main issue I was having.

After about 10 minutes I concluded that trying to find Amy inside her own mind was nothing sort of impossible. It was _her _mind after all; she could be hiding somewhere only she knew about, while I would be left aimlessly searching forever. I may be the ultimate lifeform, but inside another person's mind I'm really nothing more than a normal mobian like everybody else. I couldn't even harness any chaos energy while inside her subconscious, which I found strange since it was partially chaos energy that was even letting me communicate through the mind.

Suddenly an idea popped into my mind. I knew that there was no way to catch up to Amy in her own mind, but perhaps I could bring her to me.

I sat down where I was, ears carefully listening to any sort of footstep to try and focus on. Easier said and done when the material we were both walking on has the consistency of cotton.

"Amy… please. I just want to talk. You don't even have to come near me if you don't want."

I waited a couple of minutes after I had said this. However, I was denied any sort of physical response, so I kept using my softer persuading voice.

"I won't hurt you. I want to help you."

Again I waited a couple of minutes, only to be denied yet again. At this point I was curious if she could even hear what I was trying to tell her.

I sighed and sat back on my hand, my feet spread out in front of me.

"Amy… let me in."

"Why? So you can betray me too?"

For one of the few times in my life, I was startled by something. Strange because I'm usually the one who always is able to expect things before they happen.

Amy stood behind me, a look that was a mixture of confusion, sadness, and anger plastered across her muzzle. Her eyes told the real story however, as the only element I could sense there was an element of fear.

She was afraid as could be.

"Af… after what he did, why should I trust… why should I trust you?" He voice sounded as if she had walked out of an industrial freezer.

If I knew anything about Amy, it's that she was extremely intelligent. She didn't look it out the outside nor did she act it like Tails and Eggman did, but she possessed the ability. She could figure out how a person was thinking based on traits like body language and such. The old Amy was gullible, this older and wiser Amy was impossible to get lies across. It was like trying to build a fire in a blizzard.

I figured the easiest thing I could do was to be straight to her.

"You don't have to trust me."

Amy looked like she was about to refute me on what I was about to say, but when she opened her mouth no words came out.

"What?" She walked closer to me and looked directly into my eyes now.

"I said you don't have to trust me.''

The confusion was beginning to get the best of her, as she began to get heated. Her expression was a mixture of fear, anger, and confusion, although fear continued to dominate.

"Well then why are you here?"

"Because I care."

Silence echoed loudly between us. It was the loudest silence I have ever heard in my life. Sadly she seemed to be continually trying to deny that I actually could express an emotion like that.

"Oh please, you're Shadow the Hedgehog. You're the one who always stands there in the background and never expresses any sort of emotion. The only time I saw emotion radiant from you was when you got pissed off at something."

As much as I wanted to help Amy through this, she was pushing some buttons nobody should ever go near on me.

"And now suddenly you decide to waltz in and think oh I can express my emotions now?"

I was gritting my teeth.

"Is this why Mari…"

In less than a second, I had both of my arms clutching her shoulders my brute strength. I may be in her mind, but I still have my strength.

Her unfiltered anger vanished completely, and I swear she looked more scared and frightened than when I first saw her face earlier on.

I realized what I did, and lessened my hold, expelling a breath of air that I had been holding in. She was testing me yes, and right now she was walking on the wire with what she said. I did my best to keep my composure.

"Rose… I want to help you. To tell you the truth, you're the reason I'm even expressing these emotions, as corny as it sounds."

She didn't move a muscle, mostly because I was still holding onto her tight. I continued.

"When I lost Maria, I thought I couldn't trust anybody. So I didn't; I just hid myself in an icy shell known as the badass violent Shadow.

But that day, the one day we spent together, well, it actually kind of opened my eyes for the first time. I'm putting trust into you, which may sound like a bad idea based on your condition. But it'll help me and you."

Amy was still speechless.

"You don't have to accept my help. For the hell of it, you may flat out hate me for bothering.

But I lost one person in my life I was close to.

…

It isn't happening again."

Xxxxxxxxx

The pair stood together atop the cloud still in Amy's mind.

Shadow was still holding onto Amy's shoulders, or to be more exact, the physical image of her mind. Before it was for anger at her words, but now Shadow didn't speak. He could feel the almost hopelessness of the situation at hand, and his grip on her merely tightened, as if she would be gone forever if he were to let go.

"_It isn't happening again."_

Amy stood there, making no attempt to even move from the spot. Part of her was too afraid of what could happen if she did, but the other half wanted to stay right where she was, to stay close to the ebony hedgehog before her.

She processed the words in her head, and realization struck her so hard that her legs nearly gave way from under her.

"_He needs me just as much as I need him…"_

She was running away because of uncertainty.

She ran away from him because ever since that one day they spent together, her life changed forever. And it wasn't in a good way either.

What if she had just walked by when she noticed him sitting in the tree all alone?

What if she had gone and picked up her medication earlier on when it was still daylight out? None of this would have happened, and she wouldn't be lying in a hospital bed.

But somehow, someway, as bad as her circumstances were, it did result in something extraordinary that she never would have believed otherwise.

Shadow was as vulnerable within as anybody she knew, even herself. Beyond the exterior shell that was as hard as diamonds, shadow was like a turtle, an odd but fitting comparison. A turtle's shell acts as protection from the dangers, the uncertainties of the outside world. But when you take away that shell, the turtle suddenly becomes even more vulnerable than a regular everyday animal. It becomes, weak, and just about defenseless. Without his rough, non-caring shell, Shadow was like that of a turtle, easy to damage and vulnerable to anyone, and anything. His own emotions were his enemy.

Amy grabbed onto both of his hands, which were still onto his shoulders, and slowly dragged him down with her, until both were now on their knees.

It was Amy who was the first to speak.

"I understand."

It was simple, flat, and the truth. Shadow, who was staring straight down, motionless, cocked his head back up so that his eyes were directly into those of the pink hedgehog's before him. He looked… surprised.

"You... understand? Understand that I want to help you?"

Amy shook her head ever so slightly to signify the wrong answer.

"No, not that."

Shadow, although he wouldn't admit it, was expecting her to answer no. He knew exactly what she had just discovered, and he could tell by the way her heart slowed, by the way she seemed to transform from fearful… to caring and sympathetic.

"Well what then?" He asked, his voice cracking a bit as he felt the need to have a drink. Strange, because it's not like there was water randomly stored in her mind.

"You… you need help more than I do."

With that, Shadow went from kneeling in front of her, switching so that he was sitting with his knees near his chin. He wore an expression of fear, of emotional pain, of neglect. It was as if Amy and he had just metamorphosed into one another.

He again looked down, staring down into the very cloud he was seated on, as if in denial about everything.

Then, as he looked up and saw the almost worried eyes of Amy meet his, and finally for the first time in his life, it happened.

Shadow's shell cracked open.

He buried his face into her chest, holding her close, again similar to before as if she would somehow disappear into thin air if he let go. His tough exterior melted right in front of Amy's eyes, and all she could do is embrace him as he were her.

Shadow's own mind was a whirlwind of memories, memories of betrayal and loss, of times he refused help, of times he pushed everybody away thinking that help wouldn't do anything.

And as Amy's mind realized just moments earlier, his mind was now registering right now.

"_She understands."_


	9. Update as of 1-16-13

Hi there guys, just wanted to say that no the story isn't dead, and I actually decided to take a break from all Sonic related fanfiction in general to focus more on my teen titans related stories and such.

However, I'll make a promise that I'll start working on the next chapter of the story following the first chapter of my new teen titans story. More information about that is on my profile page if you'd like to check it out.

So sorry for the extended wait, and I hope to at least have someone out there who would like me to continue this story. (As you can see I also have a ton of problems when it comes to finishing ideas of minee, since I only have 1 completed story idea.)

See you guys on the next update!

NLH


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